Microbes play an essential role in mediating ecosystem processes such as the carbon cycle. Therefore predicting how climate change will impact ecosystem processes depends on improving understanding of how microbes respond and adapt to change. However, assessment and modelling of the adaptive responses of microbes remains a major scientific challenge due to a lack of understanding of basic microbial eco-evolutionary processes. The goal of this session is to inspire new ideas and spark discussion around next steps to integrating microbial adaptation into our understanding of ecosystem processes, especially models of carbon cycling. To accomplish this, we have invited insight from researchers with diverse scientific backgrounds who have studied microbial adaptation and impacts on the carbon cycle from different angles and at different times in the last several decades. In this session, we will first share new ideas related to microbial evolution and adaptive traits from an omics and culture-based perspective. We will then explore how to incorporate these perspectives into ecosystem models, and discuss how incorporating them can help us underpin ecosystem-scale responses, such as decomposition and plant-soil feedbacks, under global change. And finally, we will discuss how this integrative framework will allow us to better predict the future of microbially mediated biogeochemical processes.