Researchers have predicted that our planet may be home to 1 trillion species of microbes. Communities of these microorganisms, called microbiomes that exist in particular environments, are incredibly important to the health of everything from individual people to complete ecosystems. To study microbiomes, scientists need to collect, process, and share data in a standardized way. Researchers at the National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC) are seeking to develop community-supported microbiome data standards.
