Look underneath the surface and you’ll find an abundance of diverse microbial communities in inland aquatic environments — such as lakes, rivers, ponds, wetlands and reservoirs. These microbial ecosystems contribute significantly to maintaining and regulating the global flux of energy and to sustaining life on our planet. However, their ability to carry out these significant global activities is becoming greatly affected by anthropogenic disturbances.

To showcase the current developments in inland aquatic ecosystems from key climate researchers, we are delighted to announce a new Thematic Issue from FEMS Microbiology Ecology. This Thematic Issue is guest edited by Hongchen Jiang, Yongqin Liu and Gary King, who are all active research contributors to this emerging field.

Inland aquatic ecosystems (e.g., lakes, ponds, wetlands, rivers, streams and reservoirs) contribute significantly to global energy fluxes, and mass transport and transformation. Abundant and diverse microbes in these systems regulate the cycles of carbon, nitrogen and other biogenic elements. Since these cycles are subject to a variety of anthropogenic disturbances and can provide positive or negative feedbacks on climate change, they have been the subject of increasing attention.

Hongchen Jiang, Yongqin Liu and Gary King, Guest Editors, FEMS Microbiology Ecology

We hope that you enjoy this collection of articles with an insight into leading opinion and research from the field. This Thematic Issue is freely available until 10 February 2018.