Soil study highlights diversity and climate-change response

A new study has pulled together soil research to demonstrate how organisms below the ground could hold the key to understanding how the world's ecosystems function and how they are responding to climate change. Published in Nature, the paper by Professor Richard Bardgett from The University of Manchester in the UK and Professor Wim van der Putten of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology not only highlights the sheer diversity of life that lives below-ground, but also explores how rapid responses of soil organisms to climate change could have far-reaching impacts on future ecosystems. The paper also explores how the below-ground world can contribute to sustainable land management through pest control and climate-change resilience.