Effects of global change on microbial communities and their functioning

Climate and land-use change demand adaptations from everybody, including microbes within the German Biodiversity Exploratories. While humans might work for a beach body, microorganisms need to find their own way to handle seasonal variation in an environment under pressure. Thereby, the maintenance of essential functions such as decomposition or being a good interaction partner is crucial. A change of conditions often lead to break-ups and re-matching can be complicated, just like for the more evolved. For polyamorous microorganisms community re-organization is complex, not just for the microbes themselves but also for fancier partners such as plants or soil animals.