How the pungent odor that occurs after a light rain became a well-studied phenomenon

Insulating tundra soil with snow increased the abundance of microbial species involved in carbon dioxide and methane release.

An agroecology grad student creates rhizosphere-inspired art.

Soil scientists use a gas-producing reporter system to assess gene activity in bacteria.

Scientists work out the specific genes and biochemical steps required for digesting the very drugs designed to kill microbes.

The discovery of peptides, enzymes, and other gene products that confer antibiotic resistance could give clues to how it develops.

Researchers examine how underground microbes and nutrients affect plant populations.

Excavating existing topsoil and adding donor soil, researchers revitalized degraded farmland in the span of six years.

The White House announces a new effort to study diverse microbial communities around the planet.

Researchers devise new techniques to facilitate growing bacteria collected from the environment.

Arabidopsis thaliana defense hormones shape the plant’s root microbiome. 

Nearly 600 soil samples from New York City’s famous park reveal that the urban environment harbors just as much biodiversity as natural ecosystems across the globe.

Without a solid understanding of how the soil microbiome contributes to atmospheric carbon, researchers are struggling to determine whether dirt-dwelling bacteria could impact—and be impacted by—climate change.

Researchers uncover an unprecedented relationship between morels and bacteria. But can it be called agriculture?

Searching for life beyond our teeming planet has led to some innovative collaborative approaches to generating knowledge right here at home.

Doctors turn to good microbes to fight disease. Will the same strategy work with crops?

There's a lot more than dirt to the soil in which plants grow.