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Substrate availability and not thermal acclimation controls microbial temperature sensitivity response to long-term warming

Journal Article · · Global Change Biology
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16544· OSTI ID:1974770
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [6];  [6];  [6];  [7];  [7];  [8];  [3]
  1. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (United States); University of Zurich (Switzerland)
  2. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala (Sweden)
  3. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (United States)
  4. IFP Energies Nouvelles, Rueil‐Malmaison (France); University of Lausanne (Switzerland)
  5. University of Lausanne (Switzerland)
  6. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  7. University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
  8. Marine Biological Laboratories, Woods Hole, MA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Microbes are responsible for cycling carbon (C) through soils, and predicted changes in soil C stocks under climate change are highly sensitive to shifts in the mechanisms assumed to control the microbial physiological response to warming. Two mechanisms have been suggested to explain the long-term warming impact on microbial physiology: microbial thermal acclimation and changes in the quantity and quality of substrates available for microbial metabolism. Yet studies disentangling these two mechanisms are lacking. To resolve the drivers of changes in microbial physiology in response to long-term warming, we sampled soils from 13- and 28-year-old soil warming experiments in different seasons. We performed short-term laboratory incubations across a range of temperatures to measure the relationships between temperature sensitivity of physiology (growth, respiration, carbon use efficiency, and extracellular enzyme activity) and the chemical composition of soil organic matter. We observed apparent thermal acclimation of microbial respiration, but only in summer, when warming had exacerbated the seasonally-induced, already small dissolved organic matter pools. Irrespective of warming, greater quantity and quality of soil carbon increased the extracellular enzymatic pool and its temperature sensitivity. We propose that fresh litter input into the system seasonally cancels apparent thermal acclimation of C-cycling processes to decadal warming. Our findings reveal that long-term warming has indirectly affected microbial physiology via reduced C availability in this system, implying that earth system models including these negative feedbacks may be best suited to describe long-term warming effects on these soils.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1974770
Journal Information:
Global Change Biology, Journal Name: Global Change Biology Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 29; ISSN 1354-1013
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
carbon use efficiency
climate change
microbial temperature sensitivity
microbial thermal acclimation
soil carbon cycling