In a multi-generation experiment, researchers found microbes helped plants cope with drought, but not in response to plants' cries for help. Instead, the environment itself selected for drought-tolerant microbes. And while those hardy microbes were doing their thing, they just happened to make plants more drought-tolerant, too.

In a multi-generation experiment, researchers from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences found microbes helped plants cope with drought, but not in response to plants’ cries for help.

To learn how microbes help plants deal with drought, Ricks established live soil communities in pots with or without plants.

He again grew plants in soil from phase one and kept the same watering treatments, but some plants were now experiencing drought in soils that had been well-watered for generations, and vice versa.

He expected soil microbes from historically dry pots would have adapted to those conditions, helping plants withstand drought more than microbes from historically wet pots.

Ricks said soil microbes are involved in many processes that could help plants withstand stress.