Microbiome (Jan 2020)

Warming-induced permafrost thaw exacerbates tundra soil carbon decomposition mediated by microbial community

  • Jiajie Feng,
  • Cong Wang,
  • Jiesi Lei,
  • Yunfeng Yang,
  • Qingyun Yan,
  • Xishu Zhou,
  • Xuanyu Tao,
  • Daliang Ning,
  • Mengting M. Yuan,
  • Yujia Qin,
  • Zhou J. Shi,
  • Xue Guo,
  • Zhili He,
  • Joy D. Van Nostrand,
  • Liyou Wu,
  • Rosvel G. Bracho-Garillo,
  • C. Ryan Penton,
  • James R. Cole,
  • Konstantinos T. Konstantinidis,
  • Yiqi Luo,
  • Edward A. G. Schuur,
  • James M. Tiedje,
  • Jizhong Zhou

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-019-0778-3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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Abstract Background It is well-known that global warming has effects on high-latitude tundra underlain with permafrost. This leads to a severe concern that decomposition of soil organic carbon (SOC) previously stored in this region, which accounts for about 50% of the world’s SOC storage, will cause positive feedback that accelerates climate warming. We have previously shown that short-term warming (1.5 years) stimulates rapid, microbe-mediated decomposition of tundra soil carbon without affecting the composition of the soil microbial community (based on the depth of 42684 sequence reads of 16S rRNA gene amplicons per 3 g of soil sample). Results We show that longer-term (5 years) experimental winter warming at the same site altered microbial communities (p 0.725, p < 0.001) with ecosystem respiration or CH4 flux. Conclusions Our results demonstrate that microbial responses associated with carbon cycling could lead to positive feedbacks that accelerate SOC decomposition in tundra regions, which is alarming because SOC loss is unlikely to subside owing to changes in microbial community composition. Video Abstract