Managing Global Resources for a Secure Future

Microbial ecology is increasingly recognized as an important control on how carbon and nutrients flow through the soil environment. Technological advancements and application of ecological principles to soil biogeochemistry have pushed our understanding into new frontiers.  This symposium will highlight emerging ideas related to plant-microbe-soil matrix interactions that affect the fate of C and N entering the soil system. Topics include how interactions between microbial populations, their growth dynamics and distribution can affect the abundance and turnover of soil organic nitrogen and C and the competition and synergism between microbes and plants as related to soil C and nutrient flows.