Editorial for Special Issue “Advances in Soil Microbiome”

Abstract

The soil microbiome (the community of all soil microorganisms and their surrounding environment) is a critical part of our ecological network. These microbial communities carry out several important functions, including the promotion of plant growth and the cycling of carbon and nitrogen sources. Despite the importance of this community, and the recent advances in multi-omic analysis and other methods designed to query complex systems, there is a still a large knowledge gap regarding the soil microbiome, its response to changing climates and moisture levels, the specific molecular mechanisms that drive its role in the environment, and how these questions can be answered through the use of model systems. Here, we present eleven new papers that seek to answer these questions and expand our knowledge of the soil microbiome.