The sheer scale of microorganism species diversity even in small soil samples verges on the fantastic. This piece summarizes a complex original paper (http://tinyurl.com/gwhsozs) that illustrates how this area of microbiology is getting attention, and puts across how complex the soil ecosystem is. Through the example of how anticipated climate change may affect larger bacteria-grazing amoebae, the summary piece sends a message that ecosystem changes mediated by mankind’s activities may produce unpredictable direct/indirect effects.