Thermal adaptation of soil microbial respiration to elevated temperature.

By M. Bradford, C. Davies, Serita Frey, Thomas R. Maddox, J. Melillo, J. Mohan, J. Reynolds, K. Treseder, M. Wallenstein. Ecology Letters, 2008

797 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In the short-term heterotrophic soil respiration is strongly and positively related to temperature. In the long-term, its response to temperature is uncertain. One reason for this is because in field experiments increases in respiration due to warming are relatively short-lived. The explanations proposed for this ephemeral response include depletion of fast-cycling, soil carbon pools and thermal adaptation of microbial respiration. Using a > 15 year soil warming experiment in a mid-latitude forest, we show that the apparent 'acclimation' of soil respiration at the ecosystem scale results from combined effects of reductions in soil carbon pools and microbial biomass, and thermal adaptation of microbial respiration. Mass-specific respiration rates were lower when seasonal temperatures were higher, suggesting that rate reductions under experimental warming likely occurred through temperature-induced changes in the microbial community. Our results imply that stimulatory effects of global temperature rise on soil respiration rates may be lower than currently predicted.

Subfields: Civil and Structural Engineering, Ecology, Soil Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/79b3980e3259e0ae1860968cd50ce47ddec6335d

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Citations in the corpus

Long-term pattern and magnitude of soil carbon feedback to the climate system in a warming world (2017, background): “The transition from phase I to phase II was 120 characterized by a depletion of a labile C pool (18), which is considered to be the driver of 121 reduced microbial biomass (24).”
Metagenomics: Tools and Insights for Analyzing Next-Generation Sequencing Data Derived from Biodiversity Studies (2015, background): “Several types of ecosystems have been studied so far using metagenomics, including extreme environments such as areas of volcanism 6–9 or other areas of extreme temperature, 10,11 alkalinity, 12 acidity, 13,14 low oxygen, 15,16 and high heavy-metal composition.”
Where, when and how plant-soil feedback matters in a changing world (2016, background): “are depleted and soil microbes adapt or acclimate (Bradford et al. 2008; Bradford 2013), but see Blankinship, Niklaus and Hungate (2011).”
The Ecology of Soil Carbon: Pools, Vulnerabilities, and Biotic and Abiotic Controls (2017, background): “thermal adaptation of microbes to long-term warming (Bradford et al. 2008), implying that global temperature rise may not significantly increase soil respiration rates or decrease CUE.”
Thermal acclimation of organic matter decomposition in an artificial forest soil is related to shifts in microbial community structure (2014, background): “Indeed, SOM decomposition has been frequently observed to acclimate in response to warming (Hartley et al., 2007; Allison et al., 2010; Bradford et al., 2010; Crowther and Bradford, 2013), yielding lower-than-expected decomposition rates under prolonged warmer conditions.”
Microorganisms and climate change: terrestrial feedbacks and mitigation options (2010, positive): “To complicate matters further, these changes in respiration could be caused by shifts in the composition and activities of microbial communities or by changes in the quality and quantity of soil organic carbo”
Effect of temperature on metabolic activity of intact microbial communities: Evidence for altered metabolic pathway activity but not for increased maintenance respiration and reduced carbon use efficiency (2011, background): “…may be associated with changes in community composition, C and N substrate availability, or physiological adaptation to growth temperature (Bradford et al., 2008; Knorr et al., 2005; Kruse et al., 2011; Zhang et al., 2005), and would therefore not be observed in this short-term experiment.”
Grass invasion of a hardwood forest is associated with declines in belowground carbon pools (2010, methodology): “SIR biomass differs from CFE biomass because it may indicate physiologically active biomass rather than absolute biomass (Wardle & Ghani, 1995; Bradford et al., 2008c).”
Environmental filtering affects soil fungal community composition more than dispersal limitation at regional scales (2014, background): “Soil fungal communities and physiology shift with soil moisture (Hawkes et al., 2011), temperature (Allison and Treseder, 2008; Bradford et al., 2008), and nitrogen concentrations (Allison et al., 2007).”
Direct and indirect effects of climate change on soil microbial and soil microbial‐plant interactions: What lies ahead? (2015, background): “No evidence for compensatory thermal adaptation of soil microbial respiration in the study of Bradford et al. (2008).”
Integrating microbial ecology into ecosystem models: challenges and priorities (2012, background): “…biomass and/or community composition can be altered by warming (Allison and Martiny 2008 and references therein; Allison and Treseder 2008; Bradford et al. 2008; Castro et al. 2010; Frey et al. 2008; Joergensen et al. 1990; Rillig et al. 2002), N fertilization (reviewed in Allison and…”