Microorganisms serve as the foundational drivers of the global carbon cycle, mediating the transformation, transport, and fate of carbon across Earth's surface environments. From the decomposition of plant debris in soils to the processing of particle and dissolved organic matter in glacier, river, lake, and marine systems, microbial metabolisms regulate whether carbon is stored, respired as CO₂, or converted into new biomass. These processes influence key ecosystem functions, including soil fertility, water quality, and climate regulation. Despite their central role, the complexity of microbial communities spanning viruses, bacteria, archaea, and fungi, and the molecular diversity of organic matter remain major challenges for mechanistic understanding.

Rapid advances in high-resolution chemical analysis, metagenomics, culturomics, and ecosystem modeling now provide unprecedented opportunities to link microbial traits, carbon chemistry, and ecosystem fluxes together. Integrating these approaches across habitats reveals that microbes act as biochemical “gatekeepers,” connecting terrestrial and aquatic carbon pools through the breakdown, transformation, and stabilization of organic matter. As climate change alters temperature, hydrology, and nutrient regimes, microbial responses will determine the direction and magnitude of carbon-cycle feedbacks. This special issue aims to bring together emerging insights and methodological innovations to advance a predictive understanding of microbe-mediated carbon cycling across Earth's ecosystems.

报道内容

1. Emerging techniques and methods as foundational support: Single-cell genomics, single-cell culturomics,      stable-isotope tools, high-resolution mass spectrometry, genome-resolved      biogeochemical modeling, and AI-enabled big-data integration for      carbon-cycle research.

2. Microbial processes of greenhouse gas and carbon dynamics: Microbial controls on CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O production, consumption, and      emission pathways; molecular diversity, microbial transformation, and      chemogeographic patterns across environments; formation, stabilization,      and ecological roles of microbially processed organic matter in soils and      waters.

3. Engineered or reconstructed model microbiomes: Engineered or reconstructed model microbiomes designed to      dissect microbial interactions, metabolic handoffs, and emergent functions      that regulate carbon transformation and soil fertility.

4. Predictive frameworks for cross-ecosystem carbon-cycling models      based on microbial bridge effects: Predictive      frameworks linking soil, freshwater, glacier, and marine microbiomes to      carbon exchanges at landscape scales; approaches linking cellular      mechanisms, molecular transformations, community ecology, and      ecosystem-level carbon budgets, aiming to build predictive models of      microbial responses to environmental change.

专刊编委

王建军 Jianjun Wang

Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; jjwang@niglas.ac.cn

梁玉婷 Yuting Liang

Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences; ytliang@issas.ac.cn

文章类型

• 原创研究Original Research

• 方法文章Method Articles

• 综述文章Reviews

• 领域展望Perspectives

• 述评News and Views

• 快报Correspondence

投稿指南

截稿日期：

2026年12月31日（Submission deadline: 

December 31^st, 2026）

在线投稿：

https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mlife

期刊简介

mLife 是由中国科学院主管、中国科学院微生物研究所主办（中国微生物学会为合作单位）的我国微生物学领域第一本综合性高起点英文期刊。mLife 瞄准全球微生物学领域高水平科研成果和前沿进展，报道内容覆盖微生物学各个学科。mLife 的办刊目标是打造微生物学领域综合性国际旗舰期刊。目前，mLife已被国内外重要数据库ESCI、PubMed、Scopus、CSCD、DOAJ、CAS、中国科技核心期刊等收录。mLife 2024年度JCR影响因子为4.5，位于微生物学科Q1区。

期刊网站：

http://mlife.im.ac.cn/

https://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mLife

https://www.sciopen.com/journal/2097-1699

投稿网站：https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mlife

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