Summary/Abstract
Soil microbiomes, which are mainly composed of fungi and bacteria, maintain vital ecosystem functions, ranging from food production to climate change mitigation. Recent increases in the frequency and magnitude of climate extremes, such as heatwaves and prolonged periods of drought, dramatically alter the structure of soil microbial communities.
In this comment, the authors argue that interactions between soil fungi and bacteria may be crucial to understanding the ways that soil microbiomes change in response to climate extremes. The authors hypothesize that losses of certain interactions during climate extremes could lead to a dramatic decline in populations of fungi or bacteria, triggering the variation in recovery. The authors note that the functional consequences of such shifts are still poorly understood, and that this undermines our ability to utilize soil microbiomes in ecosystem restoration and climate change mitigation programs.