Soil carbon, nitrogen, soil fertility and climate change are tightly linked, new research shows

need nutrients in specific ratios," says Keiser."Just think of your daily vitamins. If you take too much vitamin C, for example, your body excretes it so that you can stay healthy."

The same holds true for the soil's microbial communities. There are billions of microbes in every teaspoon of soil. They are the predominant form of life on Earth and they depend upon both carbon and nitrogen for their survival. Just like with humans and vitamin C, microbes take the carbon and nitrogen they need into their bodies, and process and transform the rest, eventually passing it back into the soil.—think of dead leaves, rotting wood and the uncountable microbe carcasses.

Microbes also mineralize the nitrogen in that dead matter into ammonium—and plants love ammonium. But microbes can further transform the nitrogen into nitrates, which are easily dissolved in water. When nitrates are abundant in the soil, they can wash into streams and rivers, where they eventually feed vast algal blooms toxic to many aquatic plants and animals.

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