Strengthened resource limitation driven by accelerated microbial growth dampens response to elevated CO2 in a mature forest
Yuan, Mingyue LU ; Macdonald, Catriona A. ; Hicks, Lettice C. LU and Rousk, Johannes LU
(2026)
In Communications Earth and Environment
7(1).
- Abstract
Anthropogenic elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (eCO2) increases carbon (C) availability to plants. Whether ecosystems store or release this additional C depends on the balance between net primary production (NPP) and soil respiration, where eCO2-stimulated NPP can be constrained by the provisioning of nutrients by microbial decomposers. Ecosystems gradually become more phosphorus (P)-limited as weathering of primary minerals and occlusion of available phosphate increase with age, making plant-microbial competition for P a potential key driver of the fate of C in mature ecosystems under eCO2. In a P-limited mature forest (EucFACE, Australia), we found that soil microbial growth was primarily limited by... (More)
Anthropogenic elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (eCO2) increases carbon (C) availability to plants. Whether ecosystems store or release this additional C depends on the balance between net primary production (NPP) and soil respiration, where eCO2-stimulated NPP can be constrained by the provisioning of nutrients by microbial decomposers. Ecosystems gradually become more phosphorus (P)-limited as weathering of primary minerals and occlusion of available phosphate increase with age, making plant-microbial competition for P a potential key driver of the fate of C in mature ecosystems under eCO2. In a P-limited mature forest (EucFACE, Australia), we found that soil microbial growth was primarily limited by C, but that P was the secondary limiting resource. This suggests that increased plant-derived C inputs under eCO2 could relieve microbial C limitation and intensify microbial demand for P. Surprisingly, a decade of eCO2 instead exacerbated microbial C limitation. We posit that a fast growing copiotrophic decomposer community under eCO2 required more C. This shift also resulted in exacerbated microbial P limitation under eCO2. These together primed microbial use of fresh litter inputs, truncating the ecosystem P cycle, and explaining the observed faster turnover of organic matter and more intense competition for P between microbes and plants under eCO2.
(Less)
- author
- Yuan, Mingyue
LU
; Macdonald, Catriona A.
; Hicks, Lettice C.
LU
and Rousk, Johannes
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026-12
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Communications Earth and Environment
- volume
- 7
- issue
- 1
- article number
- 261
- publisher
- Springer Nature
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105034696198
- ISSN
- 2662-4435
- DOI
- 10.1038/s43247-026-03365-7
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2026.
- id
- c2c93f7f-df82-47a5-8dd1-e18422f84d7a
- date added to LUP
- 2026-05-27 15:13:47
- date last changed
- 2026-05-27 15:15:03
@article{c2c93f7f-df82-47a5-8dd1-e18422f84d7a,
abstract = {{<p>Anthropogenic elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (eCO<sub>2</sub>) increases carbon (C) availability to plants. Whether ecosystems store or release this additional C depends on the balance between net primary production (NPP) and soil respiration, where eCO<sub>2</sub>-stimulated NPP can be constrained by the provisioning of nutrients by microbial decomposers. Ecosystems gradually become more phosphorus (P)-limited as weathering of primary minerals and occlusion of available phosphate increase with age, making plant-microbial competition for P a potential key driver of the fate of C in mature ecosystems under eCO<sub>2</sub>. In a P-limited mature forest (EucFACE, Australia), we found that soil microbial growth was primarily limited by C, but that P was the secondary limiting resource. This suggests that increased plant-derived C inputs under eCO<sub>2</sub> could relieve microbial C limitation and intensify microbial demand for P. Surprisingly, a decade of eCO<sub>2</sub> instead exacerbated microbial C limitation. We posit that a fast growing copiotrophic decomposer community under eCO<sub>2</sub> required more C. This shift also resulted in exacerbated microbial P limitation under eCO<sub>2</sub>. These together primed microbial use of fresh litter inputs, truncating the ecosystem P cycle, and explaining the observed faster turnover of organic matter and more intense competition for P between microbes and plants under eCO<sub>2</sub>.</p>}},
author = {{Yuan, Mingyue and Macdonald, Catriona A. and Hicks, Lettice C. and Rousk, Johannes}},
issn = {{2662-4435}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
publisher = {{Springer Nature}},
series = {{Communications Earth and Environment}},
title = {{Strengthened resource limitation driven by accelerated microbial growth dampens response to elevated CO<sub>2</sub> in a mature forest}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03365-7}},
doi = {{10.1038/s43247-026-03365-7}},
volume = {{7}},
year = {{2026}},
}