Microbial modulators of soil carbon storage: integrating genomic and metabolic knowledge for global prediction

• Soil bacteria differ in their survival strategies and ability to influence the terrestrial carbon (C) pool.
• Omics approaches can characterize microbial system interactions and impact terrestrial C sequestration.
• Omics-derived data can be incorporated into predictive ecological models.
• This integration will aid development of microbe-based strategies for capturing and sequestering atmospheric CO2.

Soil organic carbon performs a number of functions in ecosystems and it is clear that microbial communities play important roles in land–atmosphere carbon (C) exchange and soil C storage. In this review, we discuss microbial modulators of soil C storage, ‘omics’-based approaches to characterize microbial system interactions impacting terrestrial C sequestration, and how data related to microbial composition and activities can be incorporated into mechanistic and predictive models. We argue that although making direct linkage of genomes to global phenomena is a significant challenge, many connections at intermediate scales are viable with integrated application of new systems biology approaches and powerful analytical and modelling techniques. This integration could enhance our capability to develop and evaluate microbial strategies for capturing and sequestering atmospheric CO2.