Skip to main content
Log in

Microorganisms, climate change, and the Sustainable Development Goals: progress and challenges

  • Comment
  • Published:

From Nature Reviews Microbiology

View current issue Sign up to alerts

The forthcoming UN summit marks the halfway point to 2030 and presents an important milestone in global efforts to address various challenges, including those related to climate change and environmental preservation. The UN SDGs include several related to microorganisms and climate change. Microbiology research is key to understanding and mitigating climate change, and in maintaining the health of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems (SDGs 13, 14 and 15).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

References

  1. Cavicchioli, R. et al. Scientists’ warning to humanity: microorganisms and climate change. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 17, 569–586 (2019).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Angst, G. et al. Unlocking complex soil systems as carbon sinks: multi-pool management as the key. Nat. Commun. 14, 2967 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Taş, N. et al. Landscape topography structures the soil microbiome in arctic polygonal tundra. Nat. Commun. 9, 777 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Sawyer, W. J. et al. Methane emissions and global warming: Mitigation technologies, policy ambitions, and global efforts. MIT Sci. Policy Rev. 3, 73–84 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Jansson, C. et al. Crops for carbon farming. Front. Plant Sci. 12, 636709 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. U.S. Department of Energy. Artificial Intelligence for Earth System Predictability (AI4ESP) Workshop, hosted by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER)—Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR). U.S. Department of Energy https://ess.science.energy.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/AI4ESP-Workshop-Report.pdf (2022).

  7. Malik, A. A. et al. Defining trait-based microbial strategies with consequences for soil carbon cycling under climate change. ISME J. 14, 1–9 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Thompson, L. R. et al. A communal catalogue reveals Earth’s multiscale microbial diversity. Nature 551, 457–463 (2017).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Belser, C. et al. Integrative omics framework for characterization of coral reef ecosystems from the Tara Pacific expedition. Sci. Data 10, 326 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Labouyrie, M. et al. Patterns in soil microbial diversity across Europe. Nat. Commun. 14, 3311 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Janet K. Jansson.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Additional information

Related links

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jansson, J.K. Microorganisms, climate change, and the Sustainable Development Goals: progress and challenges. Nat Rev Microbiol 21, 622–623 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-023-00953-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-023-00953-8

  • Springer Nature Limited

Navigation