Microbiomes at Risk

An Unseen World

The 'Tiny Little Ones'

Microorganisms, the basis of healthy soil, the basis of the ocean food chain and a principal source of earthy's atmospheric oxygen, on and on...

There Is a Whole World Inside Every Plant

Microbiomes full of untapped secrets

• The Human Microbiome: Why our microbes could be key to our health

• Human Microbiome Project

• Animals and Fungi: Evolutionary Tie?

It's All Related

Connections & Communities

• "Relational Reality"

• Systems Thinking, "It's All Related"

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Microbiomes and Climate Change

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microorganism

Trillions of (micro) species -- https://cosmosmagazine.com/life-sciences/earth-home-trillion-species

A Microbial 'new' Tree of Life -- http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/12/science/scientists-unveil-new-tree-of-life.html

A microcosmic world at risk of not being seen, heard, or taken into consideration -- although they are there, supporting larger, macro-systems of life

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The Fate of Small Species and the Oceans

Microbes on land and at sea, everywhere, wherever you are, there they are -- http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Soil

Microbes/Diatoms/Blue-Green Ocean Life at Risk

"A single kind of blue-green algae in the ocean (Prochlorococcus) produces the oxygen in one of every five breaths we take"

Chlorophyll in the Oceans / Life at Sea / NASA ocean science mapping

TinyBlueGreen

www.tinybluegreen.com @GreenPolicy360

Global Warming: What’s happening to the oceans’ phytoplankton, sources of oxygen, foundation of the marine food chain?

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Earth may be home to one trillion species -- http://www.archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2016/05/earth-may-be-home-to-one-trillion.html

"Earth could contain nearly 1 trillion species, with only one-thousandth of 1 percent now identified"

Study results suggest that actually identifying every microbial species on Earth is an almost unimaginably huge challenge. To put the task in perspective, the Earth Microbiome Project -- a global multidisciplinary project to identify microscope organisms -- has so far cataloged less than 10 million species.

"Of those cataloged species, only about 10,000 have ever been grown in a lab, and fewer than 100,000 have classified sequences... this leaves 100,000 times more microorganisms awaiting discovery -- and 100 million to be fully explored. Microbial biodiversity, it appears, is greater than ever imagined."

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Researchers are only beginning to understand the complexities of the microbes in the earth’s soil and oceans and the role they play in fostering healthy ecosystems.

• http://e360.yale.edu/slideshow/is_climate_change_putting_br_-_worlds_microbiomes_at_risk/520/2/

Climate change is threatening to disrupt these microbes and the key functions they provide...

One fact now being studied: the Earth's soil (and ocean) has locked up a great deal of carbon and should it come unlocked as C02 it could dramatically speed up climate change. "A big question is whether soil will be a sink or source of greenhouse gases in the future..."

Researchers say that as the planet warms, essential diversity and function in the microbial world could be lost...

• http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Extinction

Whether microbes can go extinct is not settled science. When it comes to microbes, “everything is everywhere” has been the adage among researchers who thought that all types lived everywhere, though abundance varied. Yet as more is learned about these tiniest of critters, some scientists believe that likely isn't true, and there is concern that some key microbes could be rendered extinct before we know what they do.

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Soil Loss and Sustainable Ag: Serious Questions

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What About the Earth's Microbiome?

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/what-about-earth-8217-s-microbiome/

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See Unified Microbiome Initiative

https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/01/27/calling-all-microbiome-science-champions

Scientists and engineers are teaming up to answer fundamental questions about the microbiome – the billions of microorganisms that live on and in us, our homes, our food, and our planet. Questions such as, “What is a healthy microbiome?” and “How can we manage microbiomes to keep them resilient?” are applicable to microbiomes in habitats as diverse as oceans, soil, and the human body...

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Microbiology: Create a global microbiome effort

http://www.nature.com/news/microbiology-create-a-global-microbiome-effort-1.18636

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Microbiomes at the Roots: A New Look at Forest Ecology

-- Green Policy / Global & Local

-- #Earth360 #EarthPOV #EarthObservations #EarthScience

-- #PlanetCitizens #PlanetEarth #EcologyStudies #EnvironmentalSecurity #Sustainability 

and... in passing, a Hollywood creative thanks to Dr. Seuss for reminding us of the Who!

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