Authors: Joseph M Craine Noah Fierer Kendra K McLauchlan Andrew J Elmore
Publish Date: 2012/07/26
Volume: 113, Issue: 1-3, Pages: 359-368
Abstract
The degree to which microbial communities adjust their decomposition of soil carbon over time in response to longterm increases in temperature is one of the key uncertainties in our modeling of the responses of terrestrial ecosystems to warming To better understand changes in temperature sensitivity of soil microbial communities to longterm increases in soil temperature we incubated 27 soils for one year with both shortterm and longterm manipulations of temperature In response to increasing temperature shortterm from 20 to 30 °C respiration rates increased more than threefold on average across soils Yet in response to longterm increases in temperature respiration rates increased approximately half as much as they did to shortterm increases in temperature Shortterm Q10 of recalcitrant C correlated positively with longterm Q10 measured between 10 and 20 °C yet there was no relationship between shortterm Q10 and longterm Q10 between 20 and 30 °C In all under laboratory conditions it is clear that there is reduction in the temperature sensitivity of decomposition to longterm increases in temperature that disassociate short and longterm responses of microbial decomposition to temperature Determining the fate of soil organic matter to increased temperature will not only require further research on the controls and mechanisms of these patterns but also require models to incorporate responses to both shortterm and longterm increases in temperature
Keywords: