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Title: Warming-induced permafrost thaw exacerbates tundra soil carbon decomposition mediated by microbial community

Journal Article · · Microbiome
 [1];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [5];  [3];  [1];  [1];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10] more »;  [10];  [8];  [11] « less
  1. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)
  2. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)
  3. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States); Sun Yat-Sen Univ., Guangzhou (China)
  4. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States); Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China); Central South Univ., Changsha (China)
  5. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States); Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)
  6. Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)
  7. Arizona State Univ., Mesa, AZ (United States)
  8. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
  9. Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
  10. Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States)
  11. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States); Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

BACKGROUND:It is well-known that global warming has effects on high-latitude tundra underlain with permafrost. This leads to a severe concern that decomposition of soil organic carbon (SOC) previously stored in this region, which accounts for about 50% of the world's SOC storage, will cause positive feedback that accelerates climate warming. We have previously shown that short-term warming (1.5 years) stimulates rapid, microbe-mediated decomposition of tundra soil carbon without affecting the composition of the soil microbial community (based on the depth of 42684 sequence reads of 16S rRNA gene amplicons per 3 g of soil sample). RESULTS:We show that longer-term (5 years) experimental winter warming at the same site altered microbial communities (p < 0.040). Thaw depth correlated the strongest with community assembly and interaction networks, implying that warming-accelerated tundra thaw fundamentally restructured the microbial communities. Both carbon decomposition and methanogenesis genes increased in relative abundance under warming, and their functional structures strongly correlated (R2 > 0.725, p < 0.001) with ecosystem respiration or CH4 flux. CONCLUSIONS:Our results demonstrate that microbial responses associated with carbon cycling could lead to positive feedbacks that accelerate SOC decomposition in tundra regions, which is alarming because SOC loss is unlikely to subside owing to changes in microbial community composition. Video Abstract.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; SC0004601; SC0010715
OSTI ID:
1631626
Journal Information:
Microbiome, Journal Name: Microbiome Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 8; ISSN 2049-2618
Publisher:
BioMed CentralCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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