{"id":106618,"date":"2026-02-03T17:19:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T17:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=106618"},"modified":"2026-02-10T22:28:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T22:28:44","slug":"microbes-under-the-snow-the-hidden-and-vulnerable-world-that-fuels-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/microbes-under-the-snow-the-hidden-and-vulnerable-world-that-fuels-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"Microbes under the snow: The hidden (and vulnerable) world that fuels spring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Feb. 3, 2026 \u2013 When snow blankets the landscape, it may seem like life slows down. But beneath the surface, an entire world of activity is unfolding. \u201cUnlike many plants or some animals, which tend to go dormant or are much less active during winter, soil microbes are actually very active under winter snowpacks,\u201d says Patrick Sorensen<\/a>, a soil microbiologist and assistant professor of soil ecology and biogeochemistry in the äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾\u2019s Department of Natural Resources Science.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Beneath winter snow, a hidden workforce of soil microbes blooms and crashes, shaping how nitrogen fuels spring ecosystems. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

All winter, soil microbes decompose organic matter, releasing nutrients that are critical for plants. By spring, these nutrients are perfectly timed to fuel new growth. Warming winters and reduced snow cover can disrupt this timing, allowing nutrients to wash into streams, escape into the air, or leave plants short of what they need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microbial bloom<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When snow melts, microbial activity surges. The soil microbial population size \u201cblooms\u201d as it seizes nutrients released by melting snow and rising groundwater, then eventually \u201ccrashes\u201d when the soil is depleted of these resources. This cycle produces a pulse of nitrogen that shapes soil fertility. While scientists have observed this pattern globally, the mechanisms behind it have been unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Sorensen hopes his research encourages people to see snowy ecosystems in a new light. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

New research by Sorensen and colleagues, published in Nature Microbiology<\/em><\/a>, shows that distinct groups of microbes orchestrate this seasonal nitrogen cycling. Winter-adapted microbes thrive at low soil temperatures, snowmelt specialists peak for a short window of time when soils are saturated with snow melt, and spring-adapted microbes dominate once soils warm up. Each group plays a different role in recycling nitrogen: winter and snowmelt microbes break down organic compounds like amino acids for both energy and biomass, while spring microbes help convert nitrogen into forms plants can use, sometimes retaining it in the soil and sometimes allowing it to escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rethinking nitrogen in soil<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study challenges long-held assumptions about how microbes build biomass. Traditionally, scientists focused on a few inorganic nitrogen transformations, but Sorensen\u2019s team found that soil microbes actively transform thousands of organic nitrogen compounds. They also discovered that some microbes coordinate both organic and inorganic nitrogen transformations and even interact with other species to recycle nitrogen more efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By using organic nitrogen to grow and generate energy, different microbial groups coordinate complex nitrogen transformations under snowpacks, and understanding these trait-based interactions may help predict how nutrient cycling responds to climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These findings suggest that soil nitrogen cycling is far more dynamic and complex than previously understood. Depending on which microbial groups are active and when, microbes can either promote nitrogen loss by converting nitrate into gases that escape to the atmosphere or enhance nitrogen retention by recycling it into forms available to plants or re-used by other microbes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were surprised to see how central organic nitrogen recycling was to fueling such large microbial population changes,\u201d Sorensen says. \u201cIt shows that nitrogen cycling during snowmelt is driven not just by simple inorganic transformations, but by complex interactions among microbes, organic matter, and changing environmental conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timing matters in a warming world<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These seasonal microbial dynamics are tightly linked to plant nutrient needs. Nutrients released during microbial population collapse often become available just as plants begin growing in spring. But climate change is threatening this synchronization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe think microbial nutrient release during winter and plant nutrient uptake in spring are currently well aligned,\u201d Sorensen says. \u201cWith warmer winters and reduced snowpack, that timing could become decoupled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier snowmelt and thinner snowpacks may reduce winter microbial activity or shift it earlier in the year, increasing the risk that nitrogen is lost to streams, lakes, and the atmosphere before plants can use it. At Sorensen\u2019s Colorado field site, snowmelt now occurs roughly three weeks earlier than it did 50 years ago, and low-to-no snow winters are expected to become increasingly common across the Western United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is important to emphasize that these stark changes in our environment are likely to happen within many of our lifetimes, not in some distant time in the future,\u201d he says. \u201cThis could adversely affect forest health in both the Western and Eastern United States; for example, increasing the frequency of forest fires out West or increasing outbreaks of tree pathogens in Eastern forests. We may have better options to manage adverse outcomes if we have a better understanding of overwinter microbial processes.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research was made possible by Sorensen\u2019s collaboration among scientists with expertise in microbial ecology, biogeochemistry, genomics, and metabolomics; he says his co-authors\u2019 unique expertise made the project truly a \u201cteam-science effort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking ahead, he is eager to explore new questions raised by the work, including whether antifreeze compounds produced by microbes beneath snowpacks influence methane cycling during snowmelt, a connection previously observed in marine systems but not yet documented in soils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, Sorensen hopes the research encourages people to see snowy ecosystems in a new light. \u201cThe next time you\u2019re cross-country skiing or snowshoeing through a forest,\u201d he says, \u201cpause to appreciate that there\u2019s a robust, active microbial community living\u2014and likely thriving\u2014beneath the snow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was written by Anna Gray in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Feb. 3, 2026 \u2013 When snow blankets the landscape, it may seem like life slows down. But beneath the surface, an entire world of activity is unfolding. \u201cUnlike many plants or some animals, which tend to go dormant or are much less active during winter, soil microbes are actually very active under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":106619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,1916,1905],"class_list":["post-106618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-the-environment-and-life-sciences","tag-partner-produced","tag-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106618"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106626,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106618\/revisions\/106626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}