The One Health framework recognises the intrinsic connections among environmental, plant, animal and human health. Soils occupy a central position in this framework because they regulate nutrient cycling, primary productivity, biodiversity and ecosystem resilience, processes that are primarily mediated by microorganisms. According to the article, soils are home to roughly 60 percent of all biodiversity on Earth, most of it microbial, and microbes underpin services ranging from nutrient supply to the production of most antibiotics that form the basis of modern medicine. Despite this, tropical peatlands remain poorly understood compared with temperate peatlands and agricultural soils, which the author describes as one of the last major frontiers in soil microbial ecology.

Tropical peatlands are characterised by acidic, nutrient-poor, waterlogged and often anoxic conditions that have driven the evolution of highly specialised microbial communities. Peat accumulates because decomposition is constrained by these conditions, and microbial processes regulate the balance between carbon storage and carbon loss, thereby determining whether peatlands function as carbon sinks or greenhouse gas sources. The Perspective argues that peatland ecosystem health cannot be fully understood through vegetation, hydrology and biodiversity assessments alone, because the ecological functioning of these systems depends fundamentally on microbial communities operating throughout the peat profile.

Bringing together more than two decades of research, the article reviews studies spanning molecular ecology, metagenomics and ecosystem-scale analyses. Early work documented arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi colonising 77 percent of the tropical peat-swamp tree species surveyed in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, suggesting an important role in nutrient acquisition and forest regeneration. Nursery experiments showed that ectomycorrhizal inoculation of peat-grown Shorea seedlings raised survival from 16 percent to between 73 and 91 percent, providing some of the earliest evidence that manipulating peatland microbiomes could directly improve restoration outcomes. Other researchers described Polyancora globosa, a novel aeroaquatic fungal genus adapted to extreme tropical peatland conditions, highlighting these ecosystems as reservoirs of previously unknown microbial biodiversity.

The reviewed evidence also shows that microbial communities respond strongly to human disturbance. Cropland peat soils have been found to emit more carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide than forest soils, and fungal inhibition experiments indicated that fungi contributed disproportionately to nitrous oxide production, with inhibition reducing emissions by 81 percent. Experimental drought incubations demonstrated that drained peat soils released more carbon dioxide, methane and dissolved organic carbon, and showed greater shifts in microbial communities, than pristine peat soils. The author notes that as climate change is expected to increase drought frequency in many tropical regions, degraded peatlands may become disproportionately important sources of greenhouse gases, creating a positive feedback between ecosystem degradation and global climate change.

Land-use change emerges as a dominant driver of microbial restructuring. Oil palm, the most consumed vegetable oil in the world and the fastest expanding equatorial crop, is described as the biggest driver of deforestation in Southeast Asia, where large areas of tropical peatland have been converted to agriculture. Phospholipid fatty acid profiling studies show that microbial community structures differ significantly among intact forest, drained, burned and oil palm peatlands, and that microbial composition changes consistently with depth down to two metres below the surface. One metagenomic study of peat forest conversion to oil palm plantation found that conversion altered peat physico-chemistry, reduced microbial diversity, shifted functional potential, and was associated with increased carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions linked to changes in methanogenic and denitrifying communities.

Hydrology is identified as the master regulator connecting microbiomes to One Health outcomes. Water-table depth influences oxygen availability, redox conditions, nutrient transformations and organic matter decomposition, and therefore governs microbial community structure and functional potential throughout the peat profile. Recent work cited in the Perspective shows that post-fire increases in methane emissions are associated with depth-dependent changes in microbiome composition, including enrichment of methanogenic microorganisms and reductions in methane-oxidizing taxa. The author proposes a conceptual pathway in which hydrological disturbance alters biogeochemical conditions, which affects microbial composition, which in turn alters biogeochemical cycling and ultimately disrupts ecosystem services, meaning that water table management becomes an approach to managing microbiomes and the services they regulate.

The human health connections extend beyond climate. Peatland degradation contributes to severe fire and haze events that affect respiratory health across Southeast Asia, and degradation also compromises water regulation, flood prevention and climate stability. In addition, the article highlights bioprospecting findings: screening of microbial isolates from Malaysian habitats including peat soils identified phototrophic bacteria producing bacteriochlorophyll-derived compounds with strong light-activated anticancer activity, while other studies isolated a novel peat-swamp bacterium, Chitinophaga extrema sp. nov., with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, and peat bacterial isolates producing antimicrobial proteins active against ESBL-producing Escherichia coli and MRSA in vitro. The author argues that the loss of peatland biodiversity through drainage, fire and land conversion could therefore result not only in ecological degradation and carbon emissions but also in the loss of microbial genetic resources with potential benefits for human health.

On restoration, the Perspective contends that programmes commonly evaluate outcomes using hydrological indicators, vegetation recovery and greenhouse gas emissions, but may overlook critical components of ecosystem recovery. Evidence suggests microbial communities remain sensitive to disturbance and exhibit depth-dependent responses to environmental change, so restoration success should also be evaluated through recovery of microbial ecosystem functions and community stability. The article proposes a microbiome-informed restoration framework incorporating indicators such as microbial community composition, microbial biomass, methanogen-to-methanotroph ratios, fungi-to-bacteria ratios and depth-level microbial interactions. Among emerging interventions, biochar is discussed as a case study: it is widely regarded as suitable for low-quality acidic soils, and oil palm plantations produce large quantities of biomass that could be converted to biochar, but evidence regarding biochar effects on tropical peatland microbiomes remains extremely limited, with most current understanding extrapolated from agricultural mineral soils.

Ultimately, the author calls for microbial communities to move from being considered ecological indicators to becoming policy-relevant components of peatland governance. Current peatland governance largely focuses on carbon emissions, water management and biodiversity conservation, but microbial communities are rarely incorporated into policy frameworks despite underpinning many targeted outcomes. The article proposes that restoration guidelines could include microbiome recovery targets alongside hydrological and vegetation indicators, that carbon accounting and nature-based climate solutions could integrate microbial functional indicators, and that national and global One Health strategies could expand environmental health considerations to include soil microbial health. As a Perspective, the article synthesises existing evidence and advances a conceptual framework rather than presenting new experimental data, but its conclusion is pointed: tropical peatland microbiomes represent a missing link in contemporary One Health discourse, and their conservation may be as important as the protection of aboveground biodiversity in maintaining ecosystem services and safeguarding planetary health.

Subject of Research: The role of tropical peatland microbiomes in linking soil, plant, climate and human health under One Health frameworks

Article Title: Tropical peatland microbiomes as a One Health nexus: linking soil, plant, and climate health across land-use transitions

Article References: Dhandapani, S. (2026). Tropical peatland microbiomes as a One Health nexus: linking soil, plant, and climate health across land-use transitions. Frontiers in Microbiology, 17, 1931180. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2026.1931180

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2026.1931180

Keywords: tropical peatlands, microbiomes, One Health, oil palm, carbon storage, greenhouse gases, peatland restoration, land-use change, antimicrobial resistance, biochar, drainage, climate regulation