Lazy microbes are key for soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration

Lazy microbes are key for soil carbon and nitrogen sequestration Vienna, Austria (SPX) Dec 04, 2015 - The world's soils store on the order of 2500 gigatons of carbon, which is three times the amount in the atmosphere (or equivalent to 9170 gigatons of CO2). Yet the mechanisms behind this storage are not completely understood. A new study, published in the journal Nature Communications, shows that lazy, or 'cheater' microbes, which rely on those around them to make enzymes for digesting pla ... more

---