For the first time, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) - the world's leading authority in environmental science and policy, which maintains the list of species under extinction threat, known as the Red List - is formally including all microbial life in its framework by establishing a Microbial Conservation Specialist Group (MCSG). The newly formed group of scientists, which includes Seth Bordenstein, the director of Penn State's One Health Microbiome Center (OHMC), will focus on the survival of species - even the smallest ones on the planet.
The IUCN launched the group to serve as a global safeguard for microbial biodiversity and to pursue coordinated conservation action. The move opens new avenues for microbiology as a core component of planetary conservation and is filling a critical gap in microbial conservation, members of the group explained. The group described their goals and long-term vision in an article published in the journal Nature Microbiology.
"Microbial life is the foundation of the biosphere and has existed on the planet for 4 billion years, yet it is largely absent from global conservation frameworks," said Bordenstein, who is Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Endowed Chair in Microbiome Sciences and professor of biology and entomology at Penn State. Bordenstein will serve on the commission and co-authored the Nature Microbiology article. "The launch of the MCSG under the IUCN Species Survival Commission represents a historic milestone for microbiology and global conservation. For decades, microbial life has been overlooked in biodiversity governance. Our group will change that with vision and collaborations that align with the driving mission of the OHMC to conventionalize the microbiome sciences and give the microbes their due."
The new commission, led by microbiologists Jack Gilbert from the University of California, San Diego, and Raquel Peixoto of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, will look at ecological disruption and the potential extinction of specific strains of microbes, the microscopic organisms such as bacteria, fungi and viruses that are essential to planetary and human health.
Efforts will include policy recommendations, workflow designs to collect and store microbes across the planet, and a focus on microbial species that are endangered or located in threatened regions on the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems. Specialized microbes that could be targets of preservation efforts span the photosynthetic microorganisms that allow coral reefs to flourish, various bacteria that drive key nutrient cycles in nature or prevent infections of livestock and crops, and certain species on track for extinction in the human microbiome as a result of industrial lifestyles and overuse of medicine.
"Elevating microbial perspectives within global conservation has required overcoming a deep-rooted tendency to overlook the invisible 99% of life that determine the risk of health and disease in the 1% of life that is visible," Bordenstein said. "A key objective of our new group is to embed microbial criteria into the IUCN Red List and the Red List of Ecosystems, ensuring that microbial life is assessed and protected."
IUCN is recognized for shaping conservation priorities across governments, non-governmental organizations and international treaties, Bordenstein said. The commission will bring together ecologists, traditional knowledge experts and conservation leaders to develop conservation tools, strategies and policies that integrate microbiology into global biodiversity governance.
The group aims to map conservation priorities for microbial ecosystems currently threatened by habitat destruction and human activities. Additionally, the commission will develop frameworks to guide the use of microbes that can augment existing conservation efforts. This includes efforts underway to use microbial probiotics to strengthen coral reefs or to improve the resilience of crops and rescue soil microbial diversity, or to improve other ecosystems and help conserve charismatic megafauna, large animals like tigers and elephants that readily capture the public's attention.
As one of the largest and most active units in the field, Bordenstein said the Penn State OHMC is on a global mission to define the future of health and build a legacy of contributions that promote the general welfare of humans, agriculture and the environment.
Funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation - with administrative and financial support from the International Society for Microbial Ecology, the American Society for Microbiology and Applied Microbiology International - supports he Microbial Conservation Specialist Group.
