It’s hard to know what climate change will mean for Earth’s interconnected and interdependent webs of life. But one team of researchers says we might begin to get a glimpse of the future from just a few ounces of microbial soup.<br />
DURHAM, N.C. It’s hard to know what climate change will mean for Earth’s interconnected and interdependent webs of life. But one team of researchers at Duke University says we might begin to get a glimpse of the future from just a few ounces of microbial soup. Every drop of pond water and teaspoon of soil is teeming with tens of thousands of tiny unicellular creatures called protists. They’re so abundant that they are estimated to weigh twice as much as all the animals on Earth combined.