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Metabolic rates of prokaryotic microbes may inevitably rise with global warming

Thomas P. Smith, Thomas J. H. Thomas, Bernardo García-Carreras, Sofía Sal, Gabriel Yvon-Durocher, Thomas Bell, Samrāt Pawar
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/524264
Thomas P. Smith
1Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK
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  • For correspondence: thomas.smith1@imperial.ac.uk s.pawar@imperial.ac.uk
Thomas J. H. Thomas
1Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK
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Bernardo García-Carreras
1Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK
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Sofía Sal
1Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK
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Gabriel Yvon-Durocher
2Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9EZ, UK
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Thomas Bell
1Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK
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Samrāt Pawar
1Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK
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  • For correspondence: thomas.smith1@imperial.ac.uk s.pawar@imperial.ac.uk
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Abstract

Understanding how the metabolic rates of prokaryotes respond to temperature is fun-damental to our understanding of how ecosystem functioning will be altered by climate change, as these micro-organisms are major contributors to global carbon efflux. Ecological metabolic theory suggests that species living at higher temperatures evolve higher growth rates than those in cooler niches due to thermodynamic constraints. Here, using a global prokaryotic dataset, we find that maximal growth rate at thermal optimum increases with temperature for mesophiles (temperature optima ≲ 45°C), but not thermophiles (≳ 45°C). Furthermore, short-term (within-day) thermal responses of prokaryotic metabolic rates are typically more sensitive to warming than those of eukaryotes. Given that climatic warming will mostly impact ecosystems in the mesophilic temperature range, we conclude that as microbial communities adapt to higher temperatures, their metabolic rates and therefore, carbon efflux, will inevitably rise. Using a mathematical model, we illustrate the potential global impacts of these findings.

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Posted January 18, 2019.
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Metabolic rates of prokaryotic microbes may inevitably rise with global warming
Thomas P. Smith, Thomas J. H. Thomas, Bernardo García-Carreras, Sofía Sal, Gabriel Yvon-Durocher, Thomas Bell, Samrāt Pawar
bioRxiv 524264; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/524264
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Metabolic rates of prokaryotic microbes may inevitably rise with global warming
Thomas P. Smith, Thomas J. H. Thomas, Bernardo García-Carreras, Sofía Sal, Gabriel Yvon-Durocher, Thomas Bell, Samrāt Pawar
bioRxiv 524264; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/524264

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