Chapter 16
Symbiosis in a Rapidly Changing World
K. M. Oliver and C. H. V. Higashi
Abstract While the intensification and globalization of agriculture and commerce
have provided humanity with numerous benefits, they have simultaneously escalated
systemic risk to ecological systems. Global climate change, acting in negative
synergy with other anthropogenic stresses, is expected to rapidly increase ongoing
losses of biodiversity and profoundly redistribute enduring species. This chapter
provides an overview of microbial symbiosis in a rapidly changing world. The
ability of many multicellular organisms to relocate, acclimate, or adapt to these
changes will depend on their microbial symbionts. But for other groups, specialized
symbionts may expose acute vulnerabilities that limit climate resilience unless
compensating mechanisms are engaged. We review a number of globally relevant
symbioses to examine responses to elevated temperature, drought, ocean acidification, and other climate-driven challenges. While several widespread interactions,
including mycorrhizal fungi associated with plants, show the clear potential to
mitigate specific threats, others, such as photosymbiotic corals and the obligate
nutritional symbioses of arthropods are likely to be among the first mass casualties
of climate change.
16.1 Introduction: A Critical Contradiction
The Dickens classic, A Tale of Two Cities, begins with the famous line “it was the
best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness. . .” highlighting the contradictions of the time surrounding the French
Revolution in Paris and London where societal advances occurred in a milieu of
revolutionary fervor and state reprisals. While such inherent contradictions have
likely been recognizable in most societies at any given age, today this sentiment is
playing out on a global scale, where human abundance and their collective actions
are running headlong toward the cliff of environmental catastrophe.
K. M. Oliver (*) · C. H. V. Higashi
Department of Entomology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
e-mail: kmoliver@uga.edu
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
C. J. Hurst (ed.), Microbes: The Foundation Stone of the Biosphere, Advances in
Environmental Microbiology 8, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63512-1_16
263
Symbiosis in a Rapidly Changing World
K. M. Oliver and C. H. V. Higashi
Abstract While the intensification and globalization of agriculture and commerce
have provided humanity with numerous benefits, they have simultaneously escalated
systemic risk to ecological systems. Global climate change, acting in negative
synergy with other anthropogenic stresses, is expected to rapidly increase ongoing
losses of biodiversity and profoundly redistribute enduring species. This chapter
provides an overview of microbial symbiosis in a rapidly changing world. The
ability of many multicellular organisms to relocate, acclimate, or adapt to these
changes will depend on their microbial symbionts. But for other groups, specialized
symbionts may expose acute vulnerabilities that limit climate resilience unless
compensating mechanisms are engaged. We review a number of globally relevant
symbioses to examine responses to elevated temperature, drought, ocean acidification, and other climate-driven challenges. While several widespread interactions,
including mycorrhizal fungi associated with plants, show the clear potential to
mitigate specific threats, others, such as photosymbiotic corals and the obligate
nutritional symbioses of arthropods are likely to be among the first mass casualties
of climate change.
16.1 Introduction: A Critical Contradiction
The Dickens classic, A Tale of Two Cities, begins with the famous line “it was the
best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness. . .” highlighting the contradictions of the time surrounding the French
Revolution in Paris and London where societal advances occurred in a milieu of
revolutionary fervor and state reprisals. While such inherent contradictions have
likely been recognizable in most societies at any given age, today this sentiment is
playing out on a global scale, where human abundance and their collective actions
are running headlong toward the cliff of environmental catastrophe.
K. M. Oliver (*) · C. H. V. Higashi
Department of Entomology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
e-mail: kmoliver@uga.edu
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
C. J. Hurst (ed.), Microbes: The Foundation Stone of the Biosphere, Advances in
Environmental Microbiology 8, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63512-1_16
263