Bacteria increase arid-land soil surface temperature through the production of sunscreens

Estelle Couradeau; Ulas Karaoz; Hsiao Chien Lim; Ulisses Nunes da Rocha; Trent Northen; Eoin Brodie; Ferran Garcia-Pichel

doi:10.1038/ncomms10373

Nature Communications (Jan 2016)

Bacteria increase arid-land soil surface temperature through the production of sunscreens

Estelle Couradeau,
Ulas Karaoz,
Hsiao Chien Lim,
Ulisses Nunes da Rocha,
Trent Northen,
Eoin Brodie,
Ferran Garcia-Pichel

Affiliations

Estelle Couradeau: School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University
Ulas Karaoz: Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Hsiao Chien Lim: Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Ulisses Nunes da Rocha: Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Trent Northen: Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Eoin Brodie: Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Ferran Garcia-Pichel: School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10373
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 7

Abstract

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Soil surface temperature, which affects many biogeochemical processes, depends on soil albedo. Here, Couradeau et al.show that some cyanobacteria can increase the temperature of arid-land soil surface by as much as 10 °C through the accumulation of a sunscreen metabolite.

Published in Nature Communications

ISSN: 2041-1723 (Online)
Publisher: Nature Portfolio
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science
Website: https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

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