Warm Greetings from the Journal of Astrobiology and Outreach.

Hope this message finds you in great health.

This research topic, supported by Swedish research. In the councils' program “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in a Changing Landscape” (BECC), we intend to promote an alternative framework to address how the cycling of carbon and other nutrients will be altered in a changing environment from the first-principle mechanisms that drive them—namely the ecology, physiology, and biogeography of microorganisms. In order to improve the predictive power of current models, the alternative framework supports the development of new models of biogeochemical cycles that factor in microbial physiology, ecology, and biogeochemistry. Our ambition has been richly rewarded by an extensive list of submissions. We are pleased to present contributions including primary research targeting the microbial control of biogeochemistry, comprehensive reviews of how microbial processes and communities relate to biogeochemical cycles, identification of critical challenges that remain, and new perspectives and ideas of how to optimize progress in our understanding of the microbial regulation of biogeochemistry.

Energy flows directionally through ecosystems, entering as sunlight for phototrophs or as inorganic molecules for chemoautotrophs. The six most common elements associated with organic molecules—carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur—take a variety of chemical forms and may exist for long periods in the atmosphere, on land, in water, or beneath earth’s surface. Geologic processes, such as erosion, water drainage, the movement of the continental plates, and weathering, all are involved in the cycling of elements on earth. Because geology and chemistry have major roles in the study of this process, the recycling of inorganic matter between living organisms and their nonliving environment is called a biogeochemical cycle. Here, we will focus on the function of microorganisms in these cycles, which play roles at each step, most frequently interconverting oxidized versions of molecules with reduced ones.

Kindly submit manuscripts via online at https://www.longdom.org/submissions/astrobiology-outreach.html 

 or as an E-mail attachment to the editorial office at astrobiology@emedscholar.com