Terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystems are increasingly threatened by global changes, with agricultural and forestry ecosystems facing some of the most severe environmental and socio-economic challenges confronting our planet and humanity. Climate change is widely recognized as a major global change, significantly impacting biodiversity and ecosystem services. Consequently, addressing climate change and its effects on terrestrial ecosystems must go hand in hand.
Microbes play a crucial role as the life support system of the biosphere, yet they are often overlooked in discussions about climate change. Our understanding of how climate change affects microbiomes, including their assembly and functions, remains limited. The impact of climate change on the complex interactions between microbes, plants, and soil—and the subsequent effects on plant performance and productivity—are not well understood. Furthermore, there is a need to explore how microbiomes can mitigate stress conditions caused by climate change and their role in overall ecosystem functioning.
The MICROBES-4-CLIMATE project aims to address these gaps by providing a broad community of users and researchers, regardless of their location, with efficient access to a network of world-class research infrastructures. This network offers integrated, advanced services, as well as training and scientific or technical support. At the heart of the project is an excellence-driven Transnational Access program, which will facilitate curiosity-driven research on terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystems. This research will focus on the still poorly understood interactions between microbiomes, plants, and soil, and their roles in climate change responses, resilience, and mitigation.
By advancing frontier knowledge and enabling applied research, the project will contribute to harnessing plant-microbiome interactions to enhance plant and crop climate resilience. This, in turn, will support the development of precision, sustainable, and resilient agricultural practices.
