Reduced carbon use efficiency and increased microbial turnover with soil warming

Li, Jianwei; Wang, Gangsheng; Mayes, Melanie A.; Allison, Steven D.; Frey, Serita D.; Shi, Zheng; Hu, Xiao ‐Ming; Luo, Yiqi; Melillo, Jerry M.

doi:10.1111/gcb.14517

Title: Reduced carbon use efficiency and increased microbial turnover with soil warming

Journal Article · Mon Nov 12 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Global Change Biology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14517· OSTI ID:1505337

^[1];

^[2]; Mayes, Melanie A. ^[3];

^[4]; Frey, Serita D. ^[5]; Shi, Zheng ^[6]; Hu, Xiao ‐Ming ^[6]; Luo, Yiqi ^[7]; Melillo, Jerry M. ^[8]

Tennessee State Univ., Nashville, TN (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)
Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States)
Marine Biological Lab., Woods Hole, MA (United States)

Global soil carbon (C) stocks are expected to decline with warming, and changes in microbial processes are key to this projection. However, warming responses of critical microbial parameters such as carbon use efficiency (CUE) and biomass turnover (rB) are not well understood. Here, we determine these parameters using a probabilistic inversion approach that integrates a microbial-enzyme model with 22 years of carbon cycling measurements at Harvard Forest. We find that increasing temperature reduces CUE but increases rB, and that two decades of soil warming increases the temperature sensitivities of CUE and rB. These temperature sensitivities, which are derived from decades-long field observations, contrast with values obtained from short-term laboratory experiments. We also show that long-term soil C flux and pool changes in response to warming are more dependent on the temperature sensitivity of CUE than that of rB. Using the inversion-derived parameters, we project that chronic soil warming at Harvard Forest over six decades will result in soil C gain of <1.0% on average (1^st and 3^rd quartiles: 3.0% loss and 10.5% gain) in the surface mineral horizon. Our results demonstrate that estimates of temperature sensitivity of microbial CUE and rB can be obtained and evaluated rigorously by integrating multidecadal datasets. This approach can potentially be applied in broader spatiotemporal scales to improve long-term projections of soil C feedbacks to climate warming.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725; SC0014374; FC02-06ER64157; SC0010740; SC0016590

OSTI ID:: 1505337

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1485699

Journal Information:: Global Change Biology, Vol. 25, Issue 3; ISSN 1354-1013

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 59 works

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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
carbon use efficiency (CUE)
data‐model integration
Harvard forest
microbial biomass turnover (rB)
soil warming
temperature sensitivity

Title: Reduced carbon use efficiency and increased microbial turnover with soil warming

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