Seed Health and The Two Frontiers Project launch initiative to explore microbial solutions to 'forever chemicals'

Seed Health and The Two Frontiers Project (2FP) have launched The Resilient Soils Project, a community science initiative in the United States that investigates how soil microbial life adapts to chemically impacted environments.

As 'forever chemicals' such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), along with heavy metals, petroleum, and agricultural chemicals, accumulate in soil, water, and living systems with no clear path to removal, the project aims to understand whether nature has already begun to develop its own responses and how these microbial adaptations could inform new strategies for environmental remediation and soil health.

Addressing the rise of chemically impacted landscapes

In less than a century, humans have introduced more than 350,000 synthetic chemicals into the environment, reshaping ecosystems at a pace that challenges the limits of biological adaptation. Across the United States, these substances have transformed vast areas into what scientists call chemically impacted landscapes, environments shaped by decades of exposure to PFAS, heavy metals, petroleum, and agricultural chemicals.

This prolonged chemical exposure is altering how these systems function, affecting the resilience of soils that underpin food production, water quality, and broader ecosystem health. The Resilient Soils Project focuses on these environments to better understand how soil microbiomes respond under sustained chemical pressure.

Exploring microbial pathways for environmental remediation

“Most approaches to contamination rely on removal, containment, or chemical treatment. Methods that can be costly, disruptive, and difficult to scale,” said Krista Ryon, genomics researcher and Co-Founder of The Two Frontiers Project (2FP). “Microbes may offer hope. Under sustained chemical pressure, soil microbes can evolve metabolic pathways capable of transforming or breaking down contaminants, pointing to new ways of working with living systems to restore environments shaped by human activity.”

By focusing on microbial traits that emerge in chemically impacted soils, The Resilient Soils Project seeks to identify metabolic pathways that could support more sustainable, biology-based approaches to remediation.

Community science approach to soil sampling and metagenomics

The Resilient Soils Project invites individuals and communities to collect soil samples from known or suspected contamination sites, including residential areas, farmland, and regions shaped by legacy industrial activity. Participants contribute samples from real-world environments where chemical exposure has occurred over long timescales.

Collected samples will undergo metagenomic sequencing and analysis to identify microbial traits associated with long-term chemical exposure. The resulting data will help researchers characterize how soil microbial communities adapt in the presence of PFAS, heavy metals, petroleum products, and agricultural chemicals.

Building an open-access Living Database for global researchers

Findings from The Resilient Soils Project will contribute to 2FP’s Living Database, an open-access archive that provides global researchers with DNA sequencing data and cultured samples from chemically impacted environments. This distributed, community-powered model gives scientists access to sites that would otherwise be impossible to study at scale.

By aggregating environmental metagenomic data and cultured strains, the Living Database is designed to accelerate discovery in environmental microbiology, soil ecology, and bioremediation research.

Extending a track record in community-powered microbial research

Seed Health and The Two Frontiers Project have previously collaborated on community science initiatives that generated more than 1,000 environmental data points. These efforts uncovered microbial communities with potential applications in carbon capture and coral reef resilience.

The Resilient Soils Project extends this work by leveraging public participation to expand environmental sampling and accelerate discovery in real-world conditions. The initiative is led by 2FP and supported by SeedLabs, Seed Health’s environmental research division, aligning with the partners’ shared mission to advance microbial research for environmental health.

Microbes at the center of human and planetary health

“Seed was founded on the understanding that microbes are one of the most powerful, and overlooked, forces shaping life on this planet,” said Cathrin Bowtell, Chief Executive Officer of Seed Health. “Our work in human health has demonstrated just how much potential they hold. With SeedLabs, we extend that lens outward, exploring how microbial life might help address some of the most urgent challenges facing our world. The future of human and planetary health are deeply connected, and microbes sit at the center of both.”

Want the latest science news straight to your inbox? Become a SelectScience member for free today>>