Why in News?

• A team of Researchers in the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), has recently found that grazing by livestock leads to lower carbon storage in soil compared to grazing by wild herbivores.

Highlights

• It was observed that herbivores play a key role in stabilizing the pool of soil carbon and the recent study showcases the difference as to how they affect the soil carbon stocks between livestock such as sheep and cattle compared to their wild herbivores such as the yak and ibex.
• Although soils from the wild and livestock areas had many similarities, they differed in one key parameter called carbon use efficiency (CUE), which determines the ability of microbes to store carbon in the soil.
• CUE is defined as the ratio of net carbon gain to gross carbon assimilation during a period.
• The soil in the livestock areas had 19% lower CUE.
• Antibiotics are remarkable drugs capable of killing biological organisms in one’s body without harming the body.
• These are used for everything from preventing infections during surgeries to protecting cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
• India is the world’s largest consumer of antibiotics. India’s excessive antibiotic usage is leading to a powerful never before seen mutation within bacteria.