Gene-informed decomposition model predicts lower soil carbon loss due to persistent microbial adaptation to warming

Guo, Xue; Gao, Qun; Yuan, Mengting; Wang, Gangsheng; Zhou, Xishu; Feng, Jiajie; Shi, Zhou; Hale, Lauren; Wu, Linwei; Zhou, Aifen; Tian, Renmao; Liu, Feifei; Wu, Bo; Chen, Lijun; Jung, Chang Gyo; Niu, Shuli; Li, Dejun; Xu, Xia; Jiang, Lifen; Escalas, Arthur; Wu, Liyou; He, Zhili; Van Nostrand, Joy D.; Ning, Daliang; Liu, Xueduan; Yang, Yunfeng; Schuur, Edward. A. G.; Konstantinidis, Konstantinos T.; Cole, James R.; Penton, C. Ryan; Luo, Yiqi; Tiedje, James M.; Zhou, Jizhong

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-18706-z

Title: Gene-informed decomposition model predicts lower soil carbon loss due to persistent microbial adaptation to warming

Journal Article · Tue Sep 29 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18706-z· OSTI ID:1668434

; Gao, Qun;

;

; Zhou, Xishu; Feng, Jiajie; Shi, Zhou;

;

; Zhou, Aifen; Tian, Renmao;

; Wu, Bo; Chen, Lijun;

; Niu, Shuli; Li, Dejun; Xu, Xia; Jiang, Lifen;

Abstract Soil microbial respiration is an important source of uncertainty in projecting future climate and carbon (C) cycle feedbacks. However, its feedbacks to climate warming and underlying microbial mechanisms are still poorly understood. Here we show that the temperature sensitivity of soil microbial respiration ( Q ₁₀ ) in a temperate grassland ecosystem persistently decreases by 12.0 ± 3.7% across 7 years of warming. Also, the shifts of microbial communities play critical roles in regulating thermal adaptation of soil respiration. Incorporating microbial functional gene abundance data into a microbially-enabled ecosystem model significantly improves the modeling performance of soil microbial respiration by 5–19%, and reduces model parametric uncertainty by 55–71%. In addition, modeling analyses show that the microbial thermal adaptation can lead to considerably less heterotrophic respiration (11.6 ± 7.5%), and hence less soil C loss. If such microbially mediated dampening effects occur generally across different spatial and temporal scales, the potential positive feedback of soil microbial respiration in response to climate warming may be less than previously predicted.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0004601; SC0010715

OSTI ID:: 1668434

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1801595

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Vol. 11 Journal Issue: 1; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United Kingdom

Language:: English

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