WRITER: Minerva Baumann, 575-646-7566, mbauma46@nmsu.edu
SOURCE: Adriana Romero Olivares, alro@nmsu.edu

To understand big changes in the Earth's climate, it's important to start small – very small.

Although the methane produced by cows and microbes in permafrost add to greenhouse gasses, these processes are not part of current climate change models. A new report says adding microbial research into the equation can improve climate predictions and identify solutions.

The American Academy of Microbiology, a scientific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), today released a new colloquium report, "Microbes in Models: Steps for Integrating Microbes into Earth System Models for Understanding Climate Change," examining the challenges of explicitly including microbial processes into Earth system models to improve model projections.

New Mexico State University Biology Assistant Professor Adriana L. Romero Olivares was invited to join more than two dozen members of the think tank organization within the American Academy of Microbiology to produce the colloquium report underscoring the importance of microbes in developing climate change projections.

"The American Academy of Microbiology reached out to microbiologists and also to climate change modelers," Romero Olivares said. "They asked us to come together to figure out what we have to do as a scientific community to fill in certain gaps of knowledge that we currently have so that we can move forward and improve how we predict global climate change."

The colloquium began in December 2022. Once a backbone document was established, the team of scientists continued to hone the report, editing and adding information over more than six months before releasing it on June 5.

The report demonstrates how including microbial processes into the climate change models can improve model projections. It clarifies how microbes will influence climate change by driving biogeochemical cycles through the consumption and production of greenhouse gases.

"The reports are given to policymakers, members of Congress, program officers at the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and other agencies," Romero Olivares said. "It provides important information to those who will decide what should be funded to move this field of research forward."

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently reported "climate change impacts and risks are becoming increasingly complex and more difficult to manage." With an estimated 3.3 billion to 3.6 billion people living in areas that are highly vulnerable to climate change, climate change models can provide more manageable terms to guide planning strategies and can help inform governments' responses to climate change's negative effects.

Fully understanding the feedback between climate change and microbes, and including those processes into climate change models, is a major challenge. The report outlines the top challenges that must be overcome to better incorporate microbial processes into Earth system models and funding required to tackle those challenges.

"That was the one thing that was most appealing for me," Romero Olivares said. "This report has all the information that program managers need to explain funding. It is a tool to show them what needs to be funded in this area of research."

The report will be discussed with representatives of various agencies and nonprofit organizations at the upcoming American Society of Microbiology conference June 13-19 in Houston. The conference is described as the largest microbial sciences gathering in the world.

"We're inviting program managers and others to familiarize themselves with the importance of microbial processes in the context of climate change," Romero Olivares said. "We want to help those who read the report to better understand the challenges and show them how their agencies can help."

This colloquium is part of the academy's five-year Climate Change & Microbes Scientific Portfolio focused on increasing the scientific understanding about climate change and microbes, informing climate change policies and driving market innovations.

Learn more about the impact of microbes on climate change on the American Society for Microbiology's Microbes and Climate Change resource page.

https://newsroom.nmsu.edu/news/nmsu-professor-co-authors-new-report-about-climate-change-modeling/s/1976d92d-1eb8-4646-b28d-2849b4c1380e