Opportunities and challenges for the development of geobiology

At the present time, geobiology has attracted a great attention and faces both opportunities and challenges for its disciplinary development. The innovation of technology and methodology in modern days has led to the progressive shift in the study objects from macrofossils to microfossils and finally to geomicrobes and geoviruses. Meanwhile, the themes of geobiology have shifted from environmental impacts on biotic evolution to biotic impacts on paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental changes and even on the deep processes, which enable us to decipher the fundamental issues related to the Earth’s habitability. The broadening of both the study objects and the disciplinary themes has greatly enhanced the support for societal services from the perspective of geobiology, including the supply of resources and energy, and the coordinated resilience to the crises in climate, environments, and biodiversity in modern days. However, the deep-going disciplinary development of geobiology awaits the innovation of more techniques and methods. It is further needed for geobiology to decipher not only the underlying dynamics of biotic evolution but also the biotic impacts on the deep processes including the plate movements and volcanisms, which in turn helps to evaluate whether the biosphere changed the directions or routines of the evolution of the habitable Earth, and to provide implication for coping with the crises of climate, environments, and biodiversity loss in modern days.

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