New insights into enzymes in the environment

This article introduces the thematic special issue Enzymes in the Environment: Incorporating Enzymes and Microbial Physiology into Biogeochemical Models. This collection of review articles, original studies, and models stemmed from a workshop organized by the Enzymes in the Environment Research Coordination Network, which was held at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO, USA in May 2012. The meeting, themed Incorporating Enzymes and Microbial Physiology into Biogeochemical Models featured talks from both modelers and experimentalists with experience ranging across terrestrial, aquatic, and marine ecosystems. This special issue represents a series of integrative discussions that occurred among experimentalists and modelers at the meeting. This issue highlights that a better understanding of carbon cycling pathways and subsequent carbon availability dynamics among ecosystems may be achieved by simultaneously integrating aspects of terrestrial and aquatic carbon cycling and microbial physiology into biogeochemical cycling models.