‘Profound ignorance’: Microbes, a missing piece in the biodiversity puzzle
by Ian Morse on 26 April 2021
Researchers are certain that human activity has resulted in a decline in plant and animal species. But a huge unknown remains: what impacts have human actions ranging from climate change, to ocean acidification, deforestation and land use change, nitrogen pollution, and more had on the Earth’s microbes?
A new paper poses this significant question, and offers a troubling answer: Science suffers from “profound ignorance” about the ways in which microbial biodiversity is being influenced by rapid environmental changes now happening on our planet.
Researchers are supremely challenged by the microbial biodiversity question, finding it difficult to even define what a microbe species is, and uncertain how to effectively identify, analyze and track the behaviors of microbes on Earth microorganisms estimated to be more numerous than stars in the known universe.
An Unknown Unknown - What s the State of Microbial Biodiversity?
Scientists have shown that healthier communities of microorganisms in the human gut are also more diverse. But what about the natural world? We know that biodiversity among plants and animals is in serious decline and has been for some time. Some researchers have even warned that a sixth mass extinction is currently happening. Now, investigators are asking whether we should begin to monitor microbial diversity.
Though we re aware of lots of mysteries, there s also stuff we re totally unaware of that we also haven t even thought about - the unknown unknowns. Microbial diversity is a kind of biological unknown unknown, said Dr. David S. Thaler of the University of Basel, Switzerland, a Guest Investigator at The Rockefeller University s Program for the Human Environment (PHE).