Soil microbiome as an essential player in climate change and plant health control: a review

Abstract

The European Union's Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 places significant emphasis on sustainable agriculture, including microbes, which play a crucial role in climate change mitigation and in supporting plant health. The strategy aims to put Europe's biodiversity on the path to recovery by 2030. Soil microbiomes are highly diverse and play a pivotal role in providing ecosystem services that support this diversity, thereby enhancing soil quality and functions such as carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas (GHG) emission mitigation, nutrient cycling, and plant disease control. This review evaluates the incidence of climate change-borne plant pathogens across the world, focusing on the importance of both heat-resistant fungi, which can be either pathogenic or beneficial, and microbiome-based solutions and their effects on soil processes and microbiome status. We explore the interactions between soil and plant microbiomes to regulate plant health, enhance plant resilience, and improve soil quality through microbial supplementation. Furthermore, we examine the necessity for soil health restoration to reverse biodiversity loss.