Amazon's Hidden Microbes: A Key to Climate Change?

Study Finds That Tropical Wetlands Need Immediate Protection from Human Interference

A new study focused on the critically important role played by tropical peatlands for climate change and the need for protection of the ecosystems from further human impacts, has recently pointed out that microbes play a more significant role for the regulation of the carbon cycle in the peatlands within the Amazon compared to previously assumed, according to lead researchers from ASU and from the National University of the Peruvian Amazon.A recently published study in the journal Microbiology Spectrum identified a new, hitherto unknown family of microbes that thrive in the low-oxygen conditions of waterlogged peatlands of the tropical peatlands of northwestern Amazon Peru. This means they play a double role in the carbon cycle: either as a sink for or source of carbon, depending upon the conditions. They sequester carbon under stable conditions but would release greenhouse gases like CO2 and methane during climate shifts, including droughts and warming, with fast acceleration of global warming.

The Amazon peatlands are regarded as the biggest carbon reservoir globally. This has estimated to be around 3.1 billion tons, which is a double of the total carbon amount stored in all forests in the world. In this way, peatlands are an important carbon sink to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stabilize global climate patterns. Peatlands serve as carbon sinks because their waterlogged condition slows down the decomposition process of organic material so that carbon gets stockpiled within the system over thousands of years.

 Nonetheless, the fine fragile balance is interfered with human practices. Altering processes, deforestation and mining, which may alter the present Amazonian wetland environment with more significant exposure of carbon-holding peats. Experts even stated that continued alteration could trigger a massive increase of carbon contained within soil as the current end will account to as much as 500 million tons released as greenhouse gas at the turn of the century and accounting to nearly about 5 percent of fossil-fuel annual discharges to atmosphere.

Research Team: Michael J. Pavia of ASU discovered that such microbes belong to the ancient group of Bathyarchaeia. The microbes are highly metabolically flexible and thrive in conditions with little or no oxygen. These microbes are integral to the carbon cycle since they ingest dangerous carbon monoxide gas to yield energy. They break down carbon compounds, which produce hydrogen and CO2. This CO2, however, other microbes use it to produce methane. The process is very vital in controlling the levels of carbon in peatlands.

These microorganisms thrive in the vast northwest Amazon rainforest peatland, that extends over approximately 100,000 square kilometers. The gigantic flood rainforests and wetlands are fed by very old peat, rendering this habitat particularly challenging to be investigated scientifically once estranged during previous times. In this article, an appreciation has been made about the importance in a larger cycle of carbon in terms of regulation in climates.

From further research into the systems it emerges that such ecosystems are also unbalanced. Alterations in the rain pattern, high temperatures, and human practices break the peatland's capacity to sequester carbon. When the progression of climate change advances, dry out peatlands may happen because of higher temperatures and changing rainfall patterns. As a result, they could turn from being carbon sinks into sources. Such changes would free millions of tons of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere and speed up global warming.Thus, the scientists have been demanding the sustainable land management of these ecosystems crucial for the natural world. Further, it even includes less degradation and exploitation resulting from logging and mining and especially peat drainage. Lastly, the scientists account for the sophistication in the system of microbes enabling carbon and nutrients cycle inside those systems which calls for more knowledge urgently.

Conclusion:It's been discovered, these flexible microbes, which broadens our knowledge on microbial diversity but shows resilience in life surviving in extreme conditions. Research was undertaken to explain the climatic system that even the tiniest organisms can influence in Earth's climatic systems. The work calls for attention towards the preservation of tropical peatlands as the fight against climate change is made.

Any effective management and restoration of tropical peatlands will require a better understanding of these microorganisms and their role in carbon cycling. Funded by the National Science Foundation, this research represents an important step forward in gaining a sense of how significant peatlands are to the global carbon storage and climate regulation.In this scenario, peatlands will become important elements of the Amazon for the continued fight against global warming as it changes global ecosystems with time.

Source: Research published in Microbiology Spectrum