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Optimal growth temperature of Arctic soil bacterial communities increases under experimental warming

Rijkers, Ruud LU ; Rousk, Johannes LU ; Aerts, Rien ; Sigurdsson, Bjarni D. and Weedon, James T. (2022) In Global Change Biology 28(20). p.6050-6064
Abstract

Future climate warming in the Arctic will likely increase the vulnerability of soil carbon stocks to microbial decomposition. However, it remains uncertain to what extent decomposition rates will change in a warmer Arctic, because extended soil warming could induce temperature adaptation of bacterial communities. Here we show that experimental warming induces shifts in the temperature–growth relationships of bacterial communities, which is driven by community turnover and is common across a diverse set of 8 (sub) Arctic soils. The optimal growth temperature (Topt) of the soil bacterial communities increased 0.27 ± 0.039 (SE) and 0.07 ± 0.028°C per °C of warming over a 0–30°C gradient, depending on the sampling moment. We... (More)

Future climate warming in the Arctic will likely increase the vulnerability of soil carbon stocks to microbial decomposition. However, it remains uncertain to what extent decomposition rates will change in a warmer Arctic, because extended soil warming could induce temperature adaptation of bacterial communities. Here we show that experimental warming induces shifts in the temperature–growth relationships of bacterial communities, which is driven by community turnover and is common across a diverse set of 8 (sub) Arctic soils. The optimal growth temperature (Topt) of the soil bacterial communities increased 0.27 ± 0.039 (SE) and 0.07 ± 0.028°C per °C of warming over a 0–30°C gradient, depending on the sampling moment. We identify a potential role for substrate depletion and time-lag effects as drivers of temperature adaption in soil bacterial communities, which possibly explain discrepancies between earlier incubation and field studies. The changes in Topt were accompanied by species-level shifts in bacterial community composition, which were mostly soil specific. Despite the clear physiological responses to warming, there was no evidence for a common set of temperature-responsive bacterial amplicon sequence variants. This implies that community composition data without accompanying physiological measurements may have limited utility for the identification of (potential) temperature adaption of soil bacterial communities in the Arctic. Since bacterial communities in Arctic soils are likely to adapt to increasing soil temperature under future climate change, this adaptation to higher temperature should be implemented in soil organic carbon modeling for accurate predictions of the dynamics of Arctic soil carbon stocks.

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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Arctic, climate change adaptation, microbial communities, soil warming
in
Global Change Biology
volume
28
issue
20
pages
6050 - 6064
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • pmid:35838347
  • scopus:85134560466
ISSN
1354-1013
DOI
10.1111/gcb.16342
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7338a8b9-1537-46e7-97c1-78e2f4c72dc1
date added to LUP
2022-09-13 13:43:55
date last changed
2024-04-18 14:11:06
@article{7338a8b9-1537-46e7-97c1-78e2f4c72dc1,
  abstract     = {{<p>Future climate warming in the Arctic will likely increase the vulnerability of soil carbon stocks to microbial decomposition. However, it remains uncertain to what extent decomposition rates will change in a warmer Arctic, because extended soil warming could induce temperature adaptation of bacterial communities. Here we show that experimental warming induces shifts in the temperature–growth relationships of bacterial communities, which is driven by community turnover and is common across a diverse set of 8 (sub) Arctic soils. The optimal growth temperature (T<sub>opt</sub>) of the soil bacterial communities increased 0.27 ± 0.039 (SE) and 0.07 ± 0.028°C per °C of warming over a 0–30°C gradient, depending on the sampling moment. We identify a potential role for substrate depletion and time-lag effects as drivers of temperature adaption in soil bacterial communities, which possibly explain discrepancies between earlier incubation and field studies. The changes in T<sub>opt</sub> were accompanied by species-level shifts in bacterial community composition, which were mostly soil specific. Despite the clear physiological responses to warming, there was no evidence for a common set of temperature-responsive bacterial amplicon sequence variants. This implies that community composition data without accompanying physiological measurements may have limited utility for the identification of (potential) temperature adaption of soil bacterial communities in the Arctic. Since bacterial communities in Arctic soils are likely to adapt to increasing soil temperature under future climate change, this adaptation to higher temperature should be implemented in soil organic carbon modeling for accurate predictions of the dynamics of Arctic soil carbon stocks.</p>}},
  author       = {{Rijkers, Ruud and Rousk, Johannes and Aerts, Rien and Sigurdsson, Bjarni D. and Weedon, James T.}},
  issn         = {{1354-1013}},
  keywords     = {{Arctic; climate change adaptation; microbial communities; soil warming}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{20}},
  pages        = {{6050--6064}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Global Change Biology}},
  title        = {{Optimal growth temperature of Arctic soil bacterial communities increases under experimental warming}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16342}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/gcb.16342}},
  volume       = {{28}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}