Earth Sciences Division (ESD) Department of Energy (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)

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11/17/2014

Microbes, Atmosphere in Climate Models

Sources: LBNL News Center, and Dan Hawkes

Jinyun_rileyESD climate scientists Jinyun Tang and Bill Riley have developed a climate model that quantifies interactions between soil microbes and their surroundings. It’s the first such model to include several physiologically realistic representations of how soil microbes break down organic matter, a process that annually unleashes about ten times as much carbon into the atmosphere as fossil fuel emissions.

 

Jinyun_riley_fig
The complex and dynamic livelihood of soil microbes is captured in this schematic. For the first time, these processes are represented in a computer model that predicts the fate of soil carbon as temperatures rise. (Credit: Berkeley Lab)

To read more, go to:

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2014/11/17/soil-microbes-climate/ 

Citation:

Tang, J.Y., and W.J. Riley (2014), Weaker soil carbon-climate feedbacks resulting from microbial and abiotic interactions. Nature Climate Change, DOI: 10.1038/nclimate2438.

Funding Source: BER, ACME