从太空看,地球是蓝绿色的。但如果你贴近地面,看到的可能只是褐色。大地的褐色从何而来呢?一项新的研究表明,它来自绿色植物。植物枯萎死亡后枝叶凋零,凋零的枝叶将它们为生存而储存的碳元素带到土壤中。土壤中的微生物利用专门的酶分解凋零的植物。饥饿的微生物处理了土壤中大量的碳元素,甚至把其中一部分吸收进自己的细胞。等到这些微生物死亡后,它们体内 From space, the earth is blue-green. But if you are close to the ground, you may see only brown. Where does the brown earth come from? A new study shows that it comes from green plants. After the plants withered and died, the branches and leaves were dying, and the withered branches brought the carbon they stored for survival to the soil. Microorganisms in the soil use specialized enzymes to decompose decaying plants. Hungry microorganisms process large amounts of carbon in the soil and even absorb some of them into their own cells. When these microbes die, they