Upon completion of this course, the students are expected to acquire a series of learning competencies including: 1) Understand the ecological principles governing the structure, composition, and function of microbial communities across multiple scales (cell, population, community, microbiome). 2) Know modern molecular and computational methods for studying microbiomes (16S/ITS amplicon sequencing, metagenomics) and basic bioinformatics tools for data analysis. 3) Analyze and interpret microbial diversity data (alpha/beta diversity), community composition, and functional potential using R and phyloseq. 4) Describe the characteristics and ecological role of soil, plant (rhizosphere, phyllosphere), and human microbiomes. 5) Critically evaluate the potential and limitations of microbiome applications in sustainable agriculture, environmental restoration, and climate change mitigation. 6) Collaborate effectively in teams to analyze real microbiome datasets and present research findings.