Responses of Soil Microbial Communities to Experimental Warming in Alpine Grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Global surface temperature is predicted to increase by at least 1.5°C by the end of this century. However, the response of soil microbial communities to global warming is still poorly understood, especially in high-elevation grasslands. We therefore conducted an experiment on three types of alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to study the effect of experimental warming on abundance and composition of soil microbial communities at 0–10 and 10–20 cm depths. Plots were passively warmed for 3 years using open-top chambers and compared to adjacent control plots at ambient temperature. Soil microbial communities were assessed using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis. We found that 3 years of experimental warming consistently and significantly increased microbial biomass at the 0–10 cm soil depth of alpine swamp meadow (ASM) and alpine steppe (AS) grasslands, and at both the 0–10 and 10–20 cm soil depths of alpine meadow (AM) grasslands, due primarily to the changes in soil temperature, moisture, and plant coverage. Soil microbial community composition was also significantly affected by warming at the 0–10 cm soil depth of ASM and AM and at the 10–20 cm soil depth of AM. Warming significantly decreased the ratio of fungi to bacteria and thus induced a community shift towards bacteria at the 0–10 cm soil depth of ASM and AM. While the ratio of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to saprotrophic fungi (AMF/SF) was significantly decreased by warming at the 0–10 cm soil depth of ASM, it was increased at the 0–10 cm soil depth of AM. These results indicate that warming had a strong influence on soil microbial communities in the studied high-elevation grasslands and that the effect was dependent on grassland type.

[1]  Corinne Le Quéré,et al.  Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis , 2013 .

[2]  A. Klute,et al.  Methods of soil analysis , 2015, American Potato Journal.

[3]  D. Qin,et al.  Variation and control of soil organic carbon and other nutrients in permafrost regions on central Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau , 2014 .

[4]  Z. Wen,et al.  The role of rainfall in the thermal-moisture dynamics of the active layer at Beiluhe of Qinghai-Tibetan plateau , 2014, Environmental Earth Sciences.

[5]  Ximei Zhang,et al.  Soil Bacterial Communities Respond to Climate Changes in a Temperate Steppe , 2013, PloS one.

[6]  F. Chapin,et al.  The impacts of climate change on ecosystem structure and function , 2013 .

[7]  Bin Zhang,et al.  Variations in Soil Microbial Communities and Residues Along an Altitude Gradient on the Northern Slope of Changbai Mountain, China , 2013, PloS one.

[8]  Haijun Yang,et al.  Soil microbial responses to warming and increased precipitation and their implications for ecosystem C cycling , 2013, Oecologia.

[9]  T. Balser,et al.  Toward conceptual clarity: PLFA in warmed soils , 2013 .

[10]  M. Hartmann,et al.  Long-term warming alters the composition of Arctic soil microbial communities. , 2012, FEMS microbiology ecology.

[11]  Donglin Guo,et al.  The significant climate warming in the northern Tibetan Plateau and its possible causes , 2012 .

[12]  K. Sundbäck,et al.  Experimental climate change weakens the insurance effect of biodiversity. , 2012, Ecology letters.

[13]  Bin Zhang,et al.  Soil microbial community dynamics over a maize (Zea mays L.) growing season under conventional- and no-tillage practices in a rainfed agroecosystem , 2012 .

[14]  S. Madriñán,et al.  Relationships between the litter colonization by saprotrophic and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi with depth in a tropical forest. , 2012, Fungal biology.

[15]  Lynne Boddy,et al.  Functional and ecological consequences of saprotrophic fungus–grazer interactions , 2012, The ISME Journal.

[16]  David S. Duncan,et al.  Soil microbial communities under model biofuel cropping systems in southern Wisconsin, USA: Impact of crop species and soil properties , 2012 .

[17]  Jizhong Zhou,et al.  Microbial mediation of carbon-cycle feedbacks to climate warming , 2012 .

[18]  J. Rousk,et al.  Growth of saprotrophic fungi and bacteria in soil. , 2011, FEMS microbiology ecology.

[19]  Jizhong Zhou,et al.  Shifts in soil microorganisms in response to warming are consistent across a range of Antarctic environments , 2011, The ISME Journal.

[20]  E. Bååth,et al.  Use and misuse of PLFA measurements in soils , 2011 .

[21]  J. López‐Moreno,et al.  Will snow‐abundant winters still exist in the Swiss Alps in an enhanced greenhouse climate? , 2011 .

[22]  Yiqi Luo,et al.  Effect of warming and drought on grassland microbial communities , 2011, The ISME Journal.

[23]  B. Kimball,et al.  Effect of warming and grazing on litter mass loss and temperature sensitivity of litter and dung mass loss on the Tibetan plateau , 2010 .

[24]  F. Schinner,et al.  Microbial communities and activities in alpine and subalpine soils. , 2009, FEMS microbiology ecology.

[25]  Zhe Zhang,et al.  Predominant role of water in regulating soil and microbial respiration and their responses to climate change in a semiarid grassland , 2009 .

[26]  S. Frey,et al.  Microbial biomass, functional capacity, and community structure after 12 years of soil warming , 2008 .

[27]  Y. Steinberger,et al.  Role of perennial plants in determining the activity of the microbial community in the Negev Desert ecosystem , 2008 .

[28]  N. Ostle,et al.  Microbial contributions to climate change through carbon cycle feedbacks , 2008, The ISME Journal.

[29]  M. Heimann,et al.  Terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics and climate feedbacks , 2008, Nature.

[30]  Yiqi Luo.  Terrestrial Carbon-Cycle Feedback to Climate Warming , 2007 .

[31]  R. B. Jackson,et al.  New Directions in Microbial Ecology1 , 2007 .

[32]  A. Michelsen,et al.  Fifteen years of climate change manipulations alter soil microbial communities in a subarctic heath ecosystem , 2007 .

[33]  P. Legendre,et al.  Variation partitioning of species data matrices: estimation and comparison of fractions. , 2006, Ecology.

[34]  R. Schnur,et al.  Climate-carbon cycle feedback analysis: Results from the C , 2006 .

[35]  L. Tranvik,et al.  Antagonism between bacteria and fungi: substrate competition and a possible tradeoff between fungal growth and tolerance towards bacteria , 2006 .

[36]  J. Harte,et al.  Dynamic and complex microclimate responses to warming and grazing manipulations , 2005 .

[37]  W. Hang,et al.  Soil microbial responses to experimental warming and clipping in a tallgrass prairie , 2005 .

[38]  Xiao-dong Liu,et al.  Climatic warming in the Tibetan Plateau during recent decades , 2000 .

[39]  R. Betts,et al.  Acceleration of global warming due to carbon-cycle feedbacks in a coupled climate model , 2000, Nature.

[40]  D. Bossio,et al.  Determinants of Soil Microbial Communities: Effects of Agricultural Management, Season, and Soil Type on Phospholipid Fatty Acid Profiles , 1998, Microbial Ecology.

[41]  G. Henry,et al.  Open‐top designs for manipulating field temperature in high‐latitude ecosystems , 1997 .

[42]  K. Pregitzer,et al.  Compositional and functional shifts in microbial communities due to soil warming , 1997 .

[43]  R. B. Jackson,et al.  A global analysis of root distributions for terrestrial biomes , 1996, Oecologia.

[44]  T. Kieft,et al.  Changes in Ester-Linked Phospholipid Fatty Acid Profiles of Subsurface Bacteria during Starvation and Desiccation in a Porous Medium , 1994, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[45]  D C White,et al.  Lipid analysis in microbial ecology: quantitative approaches to the study of microbial communities. , 1989, Bioscience.

[46]  D. W. Nelson,et al.  Total Carbon, Organic Carbon, and Organic Matter , 1983, SSSA Book Series.

[47]  Gengxin Zhang,et al.  Bacterial community in alpine grasslands along an altitudinal gradient on the Tibetan Plateau. , 2014, FEMS microbiology ecology.

[48]  R Core Team,et al.  R: A language and environment for statistical computing. , 2014 .

[49]  A. Michelsen,et al.  Soil microorganisms respond to five years of climate change manipulations and elevated atmospheric CO2 in a temperate heath ecosystem , 2013, Plant and Soil.

[50]  Corinne Le Quéré,et al.  Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis , 2013 .

[51]  Liu Yongzhi.  A Quantitative Study on the Plant Population Phenology of Alpine Meadow in the Permafrost Regions of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau , 2012 .

[52]  C. Prescott,et al.  Soil moisture is the major factor influencing microbial community structure and enzyme activities across seven biogeoclimatic zones in western Canada , 2012 .

[53]  Deutsche Ausgabe.  World Reference Base for Soil Resources 2006 , 2007 .

[54]  J. Deckers,et al.  World Reference Base for Soil Resources , 1998 .

[55]  D. W. Nelson,et al.  Total Carbon, Organic Carbon, and Organic Matter 1 , 1982 .