According to the study published in the journal Ecology Letters on October 9, a long time exposure of antibiotics with the manure from cows changes the soil microbiome thus decreasing the soil’s ability to store carbon and affecting the soil respiration and elemental cycling eventually. This contact between the soil and antibiotics changes the soil’s fungal and bacterial ratios as well as alters the bacterial community structure.
It is widely known that antibiotics are used in the livestock sector to boost animal growth and treat infection if any. This means that there is an 80 per cent of the consumption of medically important antibiotics in some countries. And it is expected to rise with the use of antibiotics, rising up to 67 % by 2030.
The lead author and a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biology at Colorado State University, Carl Wepking, said in a statement that there is no environment on Earth that is free from the antibiotics effects. As soil is a major source of carbon sink, so plants soak up carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, while making their food, and then store it in the soil in the process.
Thus when the carbon is released back into the atmosphere due to greenhouse gas emissions, the volume of the carbon stored in the soil is more than the soils can counter. Wepking added that the overdoing the use of antibiotics in farming has become a major problem for humans as bacteria are now unaffected by the drugs.