RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Prolonged exposure does not increase soil microbial community response to warming along geothermal gradients
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 102459
DO 10.1101/102459
A1 Dajana Radujković
A1 Erik Verbruggen
A1 Bjarni D. Sigurdsson
A1 Niki I. W. Leblans
A1 Sara Vicca
A1 James T. Weedon
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/01/23/102459.abstract
AB Predicting effects of climate change on ecosystem functioning requires knowledge of soil microbial community responses to warming. We used natural geothermal gradients (from +1°C to +19°C above ambient) in two subarctic grasslands to test the hypothesis that long-term exposure (>50 years) intensifies microbial community responses to warming compared to short-term exposure (5-7 years). Community profiles from amplicon sequencing of bacterial and fungal rRNA genes did not support this hypothesis: significant changes relative to ambient were observed from +9°C and upwards in the long-term and from 7°C to 11°C / +3°C to +5°C and upwards in the short-term, for bacteria and fungi, respectively. Our results suggest that bacterial communities in high-latitude grasslands will not undergo lasting shifts in community composition under the warming predicted for the coming 100 years. Fungal communities do appear to be temperature sensitive to the warming within this range, but only for short-term exposures.