Research project Soil Microbial responses to land use and climatic changes in the Light of Evolution (SMILE)

Soil microorganisms drive carbon and nutrient cycles in terrestrial ecosystems, releasing greenhouse gases and producing nutrients fundamental to plants. Despite this globally important role, current mathematical models fail to predict microbial responses to changing conditions—in particular to soil drying and rewetting cycles, and to altered nutrient inputs—and this limits our ability to predict the effects of land use and climatic changes on soils. In this project, we develop new models based on the idea that microorganisms are naturally selected to maximize their fitness and reproductive success, and therefore they respond to these changes in an evolutionarily optimal way. These optimality-based models will be tested using novel databases, and will be integrated into land surface models that can then be applied globally for better prediction of soil processes.