Soil Warming and Carbon-Cycle Feedbacks to the Climate System

Melillo, Jerry M.; Steudler, Paul A.; Aber, John D.; Newkirk, K.; Lux, H.; Bowles, Francis P.; Catricala, Christina E.; Magill, Alison H.; Ahrens, T. D.; Morrisseau, S.

doi:10.1126/science.1074153

Cited by 1,208 publications

(1,003 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Extension of the growing seasons, especially in early spring, can lead to substantial increases in photosynthesis and biomass production (Nemani et al 2003). Third, other studies showed that warming stimulated mineralization (Melillo et al 2002;Rustad et al 2001;), increased plant nutrient uptake and use efficiency (Sardans et al 2008). Similarly, observed increased mineralization and plant nutrient uptake are likely mechanisms leading to stimulated NPP in this study Wan et al 2005).…”

Section: Npp and Its Responses To Climate Warmingsupporting

confidence: 56%

“…Other studies also showed an increase or no change in NEP under experimental warming (Johnson et al 2000;Marchand et al 2004;Luo 2007) temperature is less critical than other plant and ecosystem processes, such as shifted plant and microbial species composition (Peñuelas et al 2004(Peñuelas et al , 2007Zhang et al 2005;Harte et al 2006), changes in phenology and extension of growing seasons (Nemanti et al 2003;Cleland et al 2007;Sherry et al 2007), and altered nitrogen uptake and use efficiency (Rustad et al 2001;Melillo et al 2002;An et al 2005), in regulating terrestrial feedback to climate change.…”

Section: Carbon Cycle Feedback To Climate Warmingmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…It has been well known that climate warming does not only affect leaf-level photosynthesis but also other processes (Luo 2007), such as biomass growth (Saleska et al 2002;Dukes et al 2005;Wan et al 2005), nutrient availability (Emmett et al 2004), plant nutrient uptake and use efficiency (Melillo et al 2002;An et al 2005), and species composition (Harte & Shaw 1995;Harte et al 2006). Any of those changes that affect plant C uptake will influence C release in intact ecosystems, feeding back to climate change.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Terrestrial carbon-cycle feedback to climate warming: experimental evidence on plant regulation and impacts of biofuel feedstock harvest

Luo

Sherry

Zhou

et al. 2008

Global Change Biology

110

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Warming-stimulated plant biomass production, due to enhanced C 4 dominance, extended growing seasons, and increased nitrogen uptake and use efficiency, offset increased soil respiration, leading to no change in soil C storage at our site. However, biofuel feedstock harvest by biomass removal resulted in significant soil C loss in the clipping and control plots but was carbon negative in the clipping and warming plots largely because of positive interactions of warming and clipping in stimulating root growth. Our results demonstrate that plant production processes play a critical role in regulation of ecosystem carbon-cycle feedback to climate change in both the current ambient and future warmed world.

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Section: Npp and Its Responses To Climate Warmingsupporting

confidence: 56%

Section: Carbon Cycle Feedback To Climate Warmingmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Terrestrial carbon-cycle feedback to climate warming: experimental evidence on plant regulation and impacts of biofuel feedstock harvest

Luo

Sherry

Zhou

et al. 2008

Global Change Biology

110

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“…This finding is in agreement with Wu et al (2009) that climatic variables were less important regulators of microbial biomass than soil parameters. Typically, a higher climatic temperature is expected to directly stimulate the microbial respiration (Melillo et al, 2002;Rinnan et al, 2007), but it could also potentially indirectly restrain the microbial activities, possibly via increasing evapotranspiration (Niu et al, 2008). The negative correlation between SOC content and MAT signified that MAT could negatively affect microbial abundance through stimulating SOC decomposition (and thus reducing residual organic carbon).…”

Section: Indirect Effect Of Mat On Microbial Biomassmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil organic carbon and soil structure are driving microbial abundance and community composition across the arid and semi-arid grasslands in northern China

Hu¹,

Xiang²,

Veresoglou³

et al. 2014

Soil Biology and Biochemistry

171

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a b s t r a c tMicrobial biogeography through the study of the assembly rules of microbes has the potential to yield ecological information that is generalizable for a wide range of microorganisms. Here we performed a large-scale field investigation of the distribution patterns of microbes across the arid and semi-arid grassland ecosystems covering an area of 690,000 km 2 in northern China. Soil microbial abundance and community composition were examined through quantifying microbial phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) at fifty sampling sites along environmental gradients. A multi-model inference analysis identified soil organic carbon (SOC) as a key driving factor for microbial biomass and quantified its effect. Structural equation models (SEM) were further fitted to the data to provide a better mechanistic resolution of direct and indirect pathways that connected PLFAs and environmental variables. The SEM analysis also supported that SOC was the main positive predictor of microbial biomass, while MAT served as the main negative factor via an indirect pathway. To visualize complex relationships between microbial community and environmental variables we engaged in a redundancy analysis. The result showed that PLFA profiles could be largely explained by the soil variables including soil structure (PSD) and pH. Overall, our report through the analysis of an unprecedented amount of primary data yields unique insights into the relative importance of abiotic factors in shaping microbial communities at large scales.

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“…While the use of field experimental warming has been less common in forested ecosystems, it holds much promise for elucidating the consequences of increasing temperatures. The majority of forest warming experiments that currently exist have primarily been implemented in temperate forests using underground cables (Melillo et al., 2002; Pries, Castanha, Porras, & Torn, 2017) but there are other viable methods. Using infrared (IR) heaters is an approach to field warming that enables warming of the vegetation and soils under free‐air, open‐field conditions, with much less disturbance than buried cables (e.g., Jarvi & Burton, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infrared heater system for warming tropical forest understory plants and soils

Kimball

Alonso‐Rodríguez

Cavaleri

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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The response of tropical forests to global warming is one of the largest uncertainties in predicting the future carbon balance of Earth. To determine the likely effects of elevated temperatures on tropical forest understory plants and soils, as well as other ecosystems, an infrared (IR) heater system was developed to provide in situ warming for the Tropical Responses to Altered Climate Experiment (TRACE) in the Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico. Three replicate heated 4‐m‐diameter plots were warmed to maintain a 4°C increase in understory vegetation compared to three unheated control plots, as sensed by IR thermometers. The equipment was larger than any used previously and was subjected to challenges different from those of many temperate ecosystem warming systems, including frequent power surges and outages, high humidity, heavy rains, hurricanes, saturated clayey soils, and steep slopes. The system was able to maintain the target 4.0°C increase in hourly average vegetation temperatures to within ± 0.1°C. The vegetation was heterogeneous and on a 21° slope, which decreased uniformity of the warming treatment on the plots; yet, the green leaves were fairly uniformly warmed, and there was little difference among 0–10 cm depth soil temperatures at the plot centers, edges, and midway between. Soil temperatures at the 40–50 cm depth increased about 3°C compared to the controls after a month of warming. As expected, the soil in the heated plots dried faster than that of the control plots, but the average soil moisture remained adequate for the plants. The TRACE heating system produced an adequately uniform warming precisely controlled down to at least 50‐cm soil depth, thereby creating a treatment that allows for assessing mechanistic responses of tropical plants and soil to warming, with applicability to other ecosystems. No physical obstacles to scaling the approach to taller vegetation (i.e., trees) and larger plots were observed.

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Soil Warming and Carbon-Cycle Feedbacks to the Climate System

Cited by 1,208 publications

References 15 publications

Terrestrial carbon-cycle feedback to climate warming: experimental evidence on plant regulation and impacts of biofuel feedstock harvest

Terrestrial carbon-cycle feedback to climate warming: experimental evidence on plant regulation and impacts of biofuel feedstock harvest

Soil organic carbon and soil structure are driving microbial abundance and community composition across the arid and semi-arid grasslands in northern China

Infrared heater system for warming tropical forest understory plants and soils

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