Plants and animals have microbiomes too! Explore these examples to learn about the role of microbes in several of Earth’s ecosystems.

DNA-sequencing tools help us see the microbiome more clearly than we could before, giving us new respect for all it does for us.

A few microbes cause disease, but most do not. In fact, many are essential for good health.

We aren’t just single individuals walking the planet: we’re walking ecosystems. And like our planet, the human body has many different environments, each with a unique set of biotic and abiotic factors.

Get familiar with some very small life forms.

Micro-Interactions

Microbes interact in communities, and they respond to their surroundings. Just like organisms in Earth’s ecosystems, our microbial populations shift when their environment changes.

Antibiotics

Humans have spent the last 80 years trying to clean “germs” from our bodies and our homes. Antibiotics have saved countless lives—but with unintended consequences to our microbiomes that we are only beginning to understand.