Microbial Biomass Distribution and Compositional Changes Associated with a Warmer Climate in Boreal Forest Soils
Abstract
Predicting the physiological and structural changes of the microbial community in warming soils is essential for a functional understanding of climate feedback mechanisms. Laboratory and field experiments have often found that warming increases soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralization and decreases microbial biomass, but remain more inconclusive regarding microbial community structure. These experiments, however, have been limited to responses on a time scale of months to years, while soil properties change over decades to centuries. Studies along climate gradients may prove helpful in elucidating how climate history affects soil properties, including microbial community structure. We present the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) based community characterization of the organic (L, F, H) and mineral (B; top 10cm) horizons of podzols from two mesic boreal forest sites similar in most aspects (e.g. stand type, class and age) but differing in mean annual temperature (MAT) by almost 6°C. This temperature difference is similar to the warming predicted for this region by 2100. Results are compared to respiration rates in laboratory incubations. We observed consistent PLFA derived biomass per unit SOC throughout the profile, independent of depth or site. The organic horizons contained similar amounts of SOC and PLFA as the top 10 cm of the mineral horizon (2.5-3.4 kg C m-2; 10.3-12.6 mmol PLFA m-2). Within the organic horizon, the greatest proportion of SOC and PLFA were found in the F horizon. The overall distribution of PLFA among the soil horizons was largely unaffected by climate regime, except that biomass was shifted from F to L horizons at the warmer site (from 12% to 29% of total organic horizon PLFA located in L) indicating that biomass was located closer to the surface in warmer sites. A similar shift was found in respiration (26 vs. 42% of organic horizon CO2 from L). As expected, community structure changed with depth. The abundance of fungal and protozoan PLFA decreased and that of Gram+ and Gram- bacteria increased in deeper soil horizons. Within each horizon, community composition was well constrained and did not vary with climate except for higher contributions of long chain (C20+) saturated fatty acids at the colder site. Interestingly, the ratio cy17:0/16:1ω7, a physiological indicator of elevated stress or dormancy for the bacterial communities, was elevated within the warmer sites and mineral horizons. This is congruent with SOC normalized respiration rates that were least 5x lower in B relative to the LFH horizons and 50% lower within F and H horizons from the warmer relative colder site. In combination these results suggest that the microbial community in deeper soil horizons and from the warmer climate regime contain a microbial community equally abundant relative to the soil C pool sizes, but not as prolific in CO2 production. Overall, our results suggest that relatively warm climatic regimes in the boreal zone can promote shallower peaks of soil microbial biomass and respiration and shifts in physiology compared to cooler systems, but no discernible differences in community composition.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFM.B31C0391K
- Keywords:
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- 0465 BIOGEOSCIENCES Microbiology: ecology;
- physiology and genomics;
- 0428 BIOGEOSCIENCES Carbon cycling;
- 0486 BIOGEOSCIENCES Soils/pedology;
- 0439 BIOGEOSCIENCES Ecosystems;
- structure and dynamics