Soil microbes are living, working barometers of soil health. Farm management decisions affect these microscopic workhorses, but, until now, scientists didn't have a full picture of how crop rotation and tillage influence the soil microbiome, say researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

It's long been understood that microbes play an important role in making nutrients available to plants but new research from Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows that different microbes play distinct roles and environmental factors influence activity.