One thousand ziplocked bags of soil from ten countries will form the basis of the first large-scale survey of the microbial life hidden underground in sub-Saharan Africa. The leaders of the African soil microbiology project hope that the data will one day help to drive better agricultural practices and to protect ecosystems and crops in the face of climate change.
“Soils are critical and soil health is vital for human and animal livelihoods,” says Don Cowan, director of the Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, who launched the project. See more