Bugs on walls: Understanding biological weathering

Microbial biofilms grow on most rock and stone surfaces and may play critical roles in weathering. With climate change and improving air quality in many cities in Europe biofilms are growing rapidly on many historic stone buildings and posing practical problems for heritage conservation. With many new field and lab techniques available it is now possible to identify the microbes present and start to clarify their roles. We now need help modelling microbial biofilm growth and impacts in order to provide better advice for conservators.