Tree bark microbiome has important overlooked role in climate

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Tree bark has a total surface area similar to all of the land area on Earth. It is home to a wide range of microbial species unknown to science, and they can either take up or emit gases that have a warming effect on the climate The bark of a single tree can be home to trillions of bacteria, and these microbes may have an important but neglected role in controlling greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere. The total surface area of tree bark on the planet is thought to be around 143 million square kilometres, nearly as much as the world’s total land surface area. This surface makes up an immense microbial habitat known as the caulosphere, but the microbes that live there have received little attention from scientists. “In a way it’s so obvious, but we have always overlooked tree bark,” says Bob Leung at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. “We never thought of microbes on
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