Soil Microbiology and Biochemistry after 75 Years: Back to the Future.

Soil microbiology, over the last 75 years has and continues to be a “Back to the Future” discipline. Leading up to the establishment of the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) in 1936 it was well known that soils could carry out enzymatic reactions, and many soil microbial species had been isolated. Microbiology was driven by human health needs, which was later recognized with the Noble Peace Prize award to the soil microbiologist, Selman Waksman (1952) for discovering streptomycin. Nonetheless, there were parallel efforts (led by Waksman) to apply classical microbiological techniques to study soils, transformations of organic matter, humic substance formation and plant nutrition, largely focused on agriculture. These topics and leguminous N fixation were dominant through the 1960s and 70s. Since the 1970’s, there was a dramatic shift towards environmental microbiology but until recently, methodologies have been fundamentally unchanged - rooted in culturing, microscopy, biochemistry, and activity measurements. With the advent of the “–omics” era, new avenues have evolved for studying ecology and uncultured microbial diversity of soils, which are yielding novel approaches for soil microorganisms to deliver environmental and agricultural services. At the same time, we are “back” to classical methods for  “-omics truthing” and a renewed effort to mine soils for novel organisms and genes. Our scientists’ diversity has changed over 75 years, with substantial representation of women and scientists from non-soil backgrounds now involved in soil microbiology and biochemistry.

Our personal soil career tracks are similar yet distinct. We both serendipitously discovered soil science as undergraduates; neither of us knowing there was a “science of soil” as high school graduates. However, our interest in soils was driven by the challenges of our “coming of age” eras. For Richard it was the post 60’s interest of food production for developing countries where as for Ann Marie it was the environmental challenges of the1990s. We are both indebted to SSSA for early career development through annual meetings, working groups, and the interactions with eminent soil microbiologists. Soil microbiology and biochemistry is uniquely poised for unprecedented discoveries and to meet challenges such as global climate change, food security, and environmental quality.