Earth Systems: Shaped by Microbial Life

Dear Colleagues,

The key component within the Earth system is a collection of four parts called “spheres”: the lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere, which involve many interactive processes. The “spheres” interact to produce the environments we are familiar with. Microorganisms, the planet's oldest inhabitants, are the main drivers for global biogeochemical cycles and impact the properties of their environments in a two-way interaction, affecting the planet's habitability and resources available to human populations.

Microbial communities with respect to geographical scales and environmental changes have been studied intensively, focusing on the triad composed of taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity. Bacteria, archaea, and fungi can form unique networks and survive under diverse conditions, including extreme temperature, pressure, pH, salinity, or even anthropogenic pressure. Recently, the power of new technologies and approaches, in particular sequencing, revealed the untapped reservoir of genetic and metabolic microbial diversity and could lead to the discovery of novel biomolecules, pathways, and capabilities involved in developing new drugs, biotechnological processes, environmental remediation methods or understanding of the microbial mechanisms in response to climate change and acquisition of important knowledge to society.
The Special Issue entitled "Earth Systems: Shaped by Microbial Life" aims to present a collection of articles and reviews on research on the essential link between microbial diversity patterns and ecosystem functioning.

Excellent and innovative manuscripts can be focused on (but are not limited to):

1. Microorganisms and the geographic limits of life.
2. The anthropogenic effect on microbial communities.
3. Bioprospecting in “spheres”.
4. Metagenomic approaches to grasp the full extent of microbial diversity.

Reviews, original research, and communications will be welcome.

Dr. Panagiota Stathopoulou
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• microbial diversity
• extreme habitats
• novel microorganisms
• bioprospecting
• anthropogenic impact
• dark matter