Nonlinear microbial thermal response and its implications for abrupt soil organic carbon responses to warming

Microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) is a key microbial trait affecting soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics. However, we lack a unified and predictive understanding of the mechanisms underpinning the temperature response of microbial CUE, and, thus, its impacts on SOC storage in a warming world. Here, we leverage three independent soil datasets (n = 618 for microbial CUE; n = 591 and 660 for heterotrophic respiration) at broad spatial scales to investigate the microbial thermal response and its implications for SOC responses to warming. We show a nonlinear increase and decrease of CUE and heterotrophic respiration, respectively, in response to mean annual temperature (MAT), with a thermal threshold at ≈15 °C. These nonlinear relationships are mainly associated with changes in the fungal-to-bacterial biomass ratio. Our microbial-explicit SOC model predicts significant SOC losses at MAT above ≈15 °C due to increased CUE, total microbial biomass, and heterotrophic respiration, implying a potential abrupt transition to more vulnerable SOC under climate warming.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2025-03-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57900-9
Citations
15
Primary Topic
Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
17.79

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article

Nonlinear microbial thermal response and its implications for abrupt soil organic carbon responses to warming

Pablo García‐Palacios, Katerina Georgiou, Shuli Niu, Kailiang Yu et al.
15 citations
Nature Communications
Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
17.79
article

Nonlinear microbial thermal response and its implications for abrupt soil organic carbon responses to warming

Pablo García‐Palacios, Katerina Georgiou, Shuli Niu, Kailiang Yu, Yang Lu, Fei Mo, Jinsong Wang, Colin Averill, Thomas Ward Crowther, Jian‐Sheng Ye, Marina Dacal, Lei He
article en
15 citations

Abstract

Microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) is a key microbial trait affecting soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics. However, we lack a unified and predictive understanding of the mechanisms underpinning the temperature response of microbial CUE, and, thus, its impacts on SOC storage in a warming world. Here, we leverage three independent soil datasets (n = 618 for microbial CUE; n = 591 and 660 for heterotrophic respiration) at broad spatial scales to investigate the microbial thermal response and its implications for SOC responses to warming. We show a nonlinear increase and decrease of CUE and heterotrophic respiration, respectively, in response to mean annual temperature (MAT), with a thermal threshold at ≈15 °C. These nonlinear relationships are mainly associated with changes in the fungal-to-bacterial biomass ratio. Our microbial-explicit SOC model predicts significant SOC losses at MAT above ≈15 °C due to increased CUE, total microbial biomass, and heterotrophic respiration, implying a potential abrupt transition to more vulnerable SOC under climate warming.

Nature CommunicationsVol. 16(1)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (US), University of Alicante (ES), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Princeton University (US), Beijing Forestry University (CN), ETH Zurich (CH), Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning (CN), Instituto de Ciencias Agrarias (ES), State Forestry and Grassland Administration (CN), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN), Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (CN), Freie Universität Berlin (DE), Lanzhou University (CN), Northwest A&F University (CN)
National Science Foundation
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
17.79
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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