multidisciplinary teams of atmospheric science, oceanography, molecular biology,
ecology, and data science.
Emerging infectious diseases have been major news items in recent years including current COVID-19 (COronaVIrus Disease 2019), influenza in the current and
many previous years, Zika fever in 2018, etc. Many of those diseases are vectorborne, and insect vectors are under the impacts of climate change and often respond
through migration. For example, the British Chief Medical Officer in 2002 predicted
that by 2050 the climate in England will be suitable for endemic malaria. Many
tropical diseases are moving poleward in both the upper and lower latitudinal ranges.
Examples include dengue fever, Zika fever, lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis),
African trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease), yellow fever, and other mosquito and
tick-borne diseases. Mosquito species like Aedes aegypti and Culex pipiens and tick
species like Ixodes scapularis are expanding their ranges, thus imposing new
problems to the regions where those infectious diseases used to be of no threat.
Very recently (November 2017), a new discovered invasive tick species,
Haemaphysalis longicornis, has been observed in mainland USA, which is an
example of the complexity of how vector migration can be influenced by multiple
environmental and societal factors, which are again associated with the human
activities causing climate change.
11.4 Mitigation
Responsible for producing all three biogenic greenhouse gases, microbes are major
contributors to climate change. However, this also means that they can be a major
mitigation strategy for greenhouse gas production. Emission reduction and sequestration enhancement would be two major greenhouse gas mitigation strategies.
Land-use (re)conversion to forests or native vegetation would have multiple beneficial effects by reducing the emission of some greenhouse gasses and increasing soil
carbon sequestration. Most of the agricultural practice improvements used for
achieving sustainability focus on the modification of microbial processes. In principle, the emission of biogenic greenhouse gases can be reduced by using more
efficient management practices for the flows of carbon and nitrogen. Efficient
nutrient management is the most important aspect of emission reduction because
nitrogen in fertilizer and manures is not always used most efficiently by crops and
grazing plants. Instead, excess application of nitrogen increases soil microbial
processes like respiration, nitrification, and denitrification liberating greenhouses
gasses into the atmosphere and causes nutrient pollution contributing to consequent
eutrophication in aquatic ecosystems. Thus, improved efficiency and optimization of
nitrogen application to agricultural lands would reduce nitrous oxide and other
greenhouse gas emissions. Some available practices for achieving these goals
include using slow-release fertilizer forms, and nitrification inhibitors, and adjusting
application rates based on more precise estimation of plant needs. Methane emission
from rice fields can be reduced by several draining events during growth seasons.
11 Microbes’ Many Roles in Climate Change: Contribution, Consequence, Mitigation,. . . 191
ecology, and data science.
Emerging infectious diseases have been major news items in recent years including current COVID-19 (COronaVIrus Disease 2019), influenza in the current and
many previous years, Zika fever in 2018, etc. Many of those diseases are vectorborne, and insect vectors are under the impacts of climate change and often respond
through migration. For example, the British Chief Medical Officer in 2002 predicted
that by 2050 the climate in England will be suitable for endemic malaria. Many
tropical diseases are moving poleward in both the upper and lower latitudinal ranges.
Examples include dengue fever, Zika fever, lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis),
African trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease), yellow fever, and other mosquito and
tick-borne diseases. Mosquito species like Aedes aegypti and Culex pipiens and tick
species like Ixodes scapularis are expanding their ranges, thus imposing new
problems to the regions where those infectious diseases used to be of no threat.
Very recently (November 2017), a new discovered invasive tick species,
Haemaphysalis longicornis, has been observed in mainland USA, which is an
example of the complexity of how vector migration can be influenced by multiple
environmental and societal factors, which are again associated with the human
activities causing climate change.
11.4 Mitigation
Responsible for producing all three biogenic greenhouse gases, microbes are major
contributors to climate change. However, this also means that they can be a major
mitigation strategy for greenhouse gas production. Emission reduction and sequestration enhancement would be two major greenhouse gas mitigation strategies.
Land-use (re)conversion to forests or native vegetation would have multiple beneficial effects by reducing the emission of some greenhouse gasses and increasing soil
carbon sequestration. Most of the agricultural practice improvements used for
achieving sustainability focus on the modification of microbial processes. In principle, the emission of biogenic greenhouse gases can be reduced by using more
efficient management practices for the flows of carbon and nitrogen. Efficient
nutrient management is the most important aspect of emission reduction because
nitrogen in fertilizer and manures is not always used most efficiently by crops and
grazing plants. Instead, excess application of nitrogen increases soil microbial
processes like respiration, nitrification, and denitrification liberating greenhouses
gasses into the atmosphere and causes nutrient pollution contributing to consequent
eutrophication in aquatic ecosystems. Thus, improved efficiency and optimization of
nitrogen application to agricultural lands would reduce nitrous oxide and other
greenhouse gas emissions. Some available practices for achieving these goals
include using slow-release fertilizer forms, and nitrification inhibitors, and adjusting
application rates based on more precise estimation of plant needs. Methane emission
from rice fields can be reduced by several draining events during growth seasons.
11 Microbes’ Many Roles in Climate Change: Contribution, Consequence, Mitigation,. . . 191