Ecosystem function and services : regulating services : atmospheric composition and climate regulation

Climate change is most likely the greatest challenge that humans will face this century. The role of microbiota in determining the Earth's atmospheric composition, and hence climate, started with the origin of life. From the first molecules of oxygen produced by marine cyanobacteria 3.5 thousand million years ago, to the production of methane by archaea (see page 32) in the warm, carbon-rich swamps of the Carboniferous period, microbial processes have long been key drivers of, and responders to, climate change. Throughout the history of our living planet, microbes have been the main modulators in determining atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHG), including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH) and nitrous oxide (N20). [129]