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Biomass and Activity in Temperate Steppe Soils UC Irvine UC Irvine Previously Published Works Title Precipitation regime drives warming responses of microbial biomass and activity in temperate steppe soils Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5qp6f8sg Journal Biology and Fertility of Soils, 52(4) ISSN 0178-2762 Authors Liu, W Allison, SD Xia, J et al. Publication Date 2016-05-01 DOI 10.1007/s00374-016-1087-7 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California AUTHOR'S PROOF! 53 Foot note The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00374-016-1087-7) contains information supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Electronic supplementary material Figure S1 The relationships between annual precipitation and aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) and microbial properties including soil microbial biomass C (MBC; a, b), N (MBN; c, d), and respiration (MR; e, f) for all replicates across sites and years. (DOCX 103 kb) Figure S2 Warming-induced changes in (a) aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) and (b) belowground net primary productivity (BNPP) in the desert, typical, and meadow steppes in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. (DOCX 38 kb) Figure S3 Relationships between soil temperature (T) and soil microbial biomass C (MBC; a, b, c), N (MBN; d, e, f), and respiration (MR; g, h, i) across the 3 sites in each year. (DOCX 96 kb) AUTHOR'S PROOF! JrnlID 374_ArtID 1087_Proof# 1 - 16/01/2016 Biol Fertil Soils DOI 10.1007/s00374-016-1087-7 1 3 ORIGINAL PAPER 2 4 Precipitation regime drives warming responses of microbial 5 biomass and activity in temperate steppe soils 1 2,3 4 1 5 6 Weixing Liu & Steven D. Allison & Jianyang Xia & Lingli Liu & Shiqiang Wan 7 8 Received: 8 March 2015 /Revised: 3 January 2016 /Accepted: 7 January 2016 9 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016 OF 10 Abstract Although numerous warming experiments have ex- changes in soil MBC, MBN, and microbial respiration were 26 11 amined the impacts of elevated temperature on soil microbial all positively correlated with annual precipitation and changes 27 12 activities, most are based on responses from a single site. To in belowgroundPRO net primary productivity. Our results suggest 28 13 investigate how precipitation regime regulates warming ef- that precipitation regime controls the response of soil micro- 29 14 fects on the carbon cycle, we conducted manipulative bial activity and biomass to warming, possibly by regulating 30 15 warming experiments in desert steppe, typical steppe, and soil moistureD and substrate availability. With increasing pre- 31 16 meadow steppe along a precipitation gradient in northern Chi- cipitation,E the stimulatory effects of warming on soil microbial 32 17 na. Soil temperature, moisture, microbial biomass C (MBC), activity and biomass outweigh the inhibitory effects due to 33 18 N (MBN), and microbial respiration were measured from declining soil moisture. 34 19 2006 to 2009. Soil moisture was significantly reduced by 20 warming in the typical steppe but not affected in the desert Keywords Drought . Elevated temperature . Grassland . 35 21 and meadow steppe. Across the 4 years, warming decreased Microbial activities . Precipitation . Soil moisture . Substrate 36 22 MBC and microbial respiration in the desert and typical steppe availability 37 23 but not in the meadow steppe. The magnitude of warming- 24 induced reductions in MBC and microbialORRECT respiration declined 25 as site precipitation increased. Across the three sites, the C Introduction 38 Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00374-016-1087-7) contains supplementary material, Soil microbes exert a strong influence on carbon cycling in 39 which is available to authorized users.UN terrestrial ecosystems via decomposition of plant litter and soil 40 organic matter (Bardgett et al. 2008; Wardle et al. 2004; Zhou 41 * Weixing Liu [email protected] et al. 2012). Consequently, the responses of soil microbes to 42 elevated temperature have impacts on the responses of soil C 43 inputs and feedbacks to warming (Allison et al. 2010). A 44 1 State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, better understanding of how soil microbes respond to elevated 45 Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiangshan, temperature would therefore facilitate predictions of soil C 46 Beijing 100093, China cycling under climate warming. 47 2 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Elevated temperature directly influences soil C turnover 48 California, Irvine, California 92697, USA (Melillo et al. 2002) and soil microbial growth and activity 49 3 Department of Earth System Science, University of California, (Blagodatskaya et al. 2014; Natali et al. 2012) in both lab 50 Irvine, California 92697, USA incubations and field experiments. Warming can affect soil 51 4 Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of microbial activities by alteringbothsoiltemperatureand 52 Oklahoma, 770 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, Oklahoma 73019, USA moisture (Carlyle et al. 2011) as well as biotic processes such 53 5 Key State Laboratory of Cotton Biology, College of Life Sciences, as plant production, litter input, root growth, and root exudates 54 Henan University, Kaifeng, Henan 475004, China (Hobbie and Chapin 1998; Natali et al. 2012; Yin et al. 2013). 55 AUTHOR'SJrnlID 374_ArtID 1087_Proof# PROOF! 1 - 16/01/2016 Biol Fertil Soils 56 Soil microbial activity and biomass responses to warming in Changling County in Jilin Province. Site characteristics are 105 57 have been investigated in numerous field manipulations listed in Table 1, and annual precipitation is shown in Fig. 1a. 106 58 across various terrestrial ecosystems with both increases and The warming experiment was established in the desert, 107 59 declines observed. For example,elevatedtemperaturein- typical, and meadow steppe sites in April 2006. This study 108 60 creased soil microbial biomass or respiration in an old field was a part of large experiment that included warming and N 109 61 (Bell et al. 2010), Arctic tundra (Sistla and Schimel 2013), manipulation in a randomized block design. We used the ex- 110 62 temperate heathland (Haugwitz et al. 2014), and in some in- periment to test the effect of warming treatments on microbial 111 63 cubation experiments (Blagodatskaya et al. 2014; Menichetti biomass and activity at a regional scale. At each site, we an- 112 64 et al. 2015) by enhancing microbial metabolic rates or by alyzed 12 plots, with 6 randomly assigned to the warming 113 65 extending the plant growing season. Conversely, warming re- treatment and the other 6 randomly assigned as controls. In 114 66 duced soil microbial activities by amplifying soil drying in a each warming plot, one MSR-2420 infrared radiator (Kalglo 115 67 semiarid temperate steppe (Liu et al. 2009). In a tallgrass prai- Electronics Inc., Bethlehem, PA, USA) was suspended 2.25 m 116 68 rie, soil microbial activity showed no response to warming above the ground in each warmed plot starting in April 2006. 117 69 despite an increased fungal to bacterial ratio (Zhang et al. To stimulate the shading effects of the infrared radiator, a 118 70 2005). Given these different responses across sites, coordinat- “dummy” heater with the same shape and size as the infrared 119 71 ed manipulative warming experiments along environmental heater was also suspended 2.25 m high in each warming con- 120 72 gradients could help reveal the mechanisms driving soil mi- trol plot. Plots were 2 ×3 mOF and located within a 667-m2 area 121 73 crobial responses to warming at a regional scale (Fraser et al. at each site. 122 74 2013). Soil samples (12 total per site) were collected from 123 75 In the temperate steppe of northern China, soil moisture is a warming and control plots once per year in August from 124 76 primary factor controlling plant growth and soil microbial 2006 to 2009PRO (samples were not collected from meadow 125 77 activities (Xia et al. 2009). Warming-induced changes in soil steppe in 2007). Sampling was timed to coincide with maxi- 126 78 moisture negatively affected soil microbial activities in a typ- mum aboveground biomass in each site. In each plot, three 127 79 ical steppe ecosystem (Liu et al. 2009). To investigate soil coresD (15 cm depth and 5 cm diameter) were taken ran- 128 80 warming effects on activity and biomass of soil microbial domlyE and combined into a composite sample. After remov- 129Q2 81 communities and the underlying mechanisms at a broader ing roots and stones by sieving (2 mm mesh), the samples 130 82 regional scale, warming manipulations have been conducted were stored on ice and transferred to the lab for dissolved 131 83 at three sites along a precipitation gradient in this region since organic carbon (DOC), inorganic N concentration, and micro- 132 84 2006 (Zhang et al. 2015). Given that soil microbial activities bial analyses. Subsamples were taken to measure gravimetric 133 85 are often driven by soil moisture rather than temperature as water content and soil chemical properties (air-dried, finely 134 86 moisture declines (Liu et al. 2009; Shaver et al. 2000), we ground, and sieved to <250 μm). 135 87 hypothesized that warming would inhibit microbial activity 88 by increasing soil drought stress in theORRECT gradient sites with Measurements 136 89 lower precipitation (Xia et al. 2009). In contrast, we expected 90 warming to increase microbial activityC in the meadow steppe Soil temperature (oC) at 10 cm depth was measured using a 137 91 site with the highest rainfall. We also hypothesized that thermocouple probe (Li-8100-201) once per week over the 138 92 warming effects on microbialUN activity would depend on inter- growing season. Gravimetric soil moisture was measured 139 93 annual variation in precipitation, with greater magnitude of using fresh soil samples once each year in August.
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