Microorganisms are the most diverse group on Earth and play critical roles in various biogeochemical and ecosystem processes. However, microbial responses to climate change and these effects on ecosystem functioning remain elusive. Recent advanced technologies makes it possible for us to analyze microbial communities affected by human-influenced factors, such as decreased biodiversity, global warming, elevated CO2, and reduced precipitation. Current high throughput data have revealed that microbial communities may be sensitive, resilient, and/or resistant to anthropogenic environmental changes. However, little is known as to whether such responses are consistent across disparate ecosystems, or ecosystem-specific as well as their relationships with macroorganisms and ecosystem functioning. In the Big Data era, continuously increased microbial data coupled with available metadata may allow us to address those challenges. This special section will focus on fundamental questions in microbial ecology: How do microbial communities respond to climate changes? What are interactive responses of microbial communities to multiple climate change factors? Are there consistent or common patterns of microbial responses to a particular climate change factor across disparate ecosystems/sites? How can we predict ecosystem functioning using microbial community information? How do microorganisms and macroorganisms interact in a natural and man-made ecosystem? Thus, we propose to organize a special section at the 2016 ESA Annual Conference by inviting ecologists and microbiologists and to discuss the following topics: 1) microbial community responses to climate changes; 2) consistent and specific patterns of microbial responses to climate changes; 3) prediction of ecosystem functioning using microbial information; 4) community dynamics and succession; and 5) interactions among community members. Idea exchanges between speakers and attendees will be highly encouraged during this session.