Microbial contributions to climate change through carbon cycle feedbacks
Top Cited Papers
- 10 July 2008
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in The ISME Journal
- Vol. 2 (8), 805-814
- https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2008.58
Abstract
There is considerable interest in understanding the biological mechanisms that regulate carbon exchanges between the land and atmosphere, and how these exchanges respond to climate change. An understanding of soil microbial ecology is central to our ability to assess terrestrial carbon cycle–climate feedbacks, but the complexity of the soil microbial community and the many ways that it can be affected by climate and other global changes hampers our ability to draw firm conclusions on this topic. In this paper, we argue that to understand the potential negative and positive contributions of soil microbes to land–atmosphere carbon exchange and global warming requires explicit consideration of both direct and indirect impacts of climate change on microorganisms. Moreover, we argue that this requires consideration of complex interactions and feedbacks that occur between microbes, plants and their physical environment in the context of climate change, and the influence of other global changes which have the capacity to amplify climate-driven effects on soil microbes. Overall, we emphasize the urgent need for greater understanding of how soil microbial ecology contributes to land–atmosphere carbon exchange in the context of climate change, and identify some challenges for the future. In particular, we highlight the need for a multifactor experimental approach to understand how soil microbes and their activities respond to climate change and consequences for carbon cycle feedbacks.Keywords
This publication has 107 references indexed in Scilit:
- Active root-inhabiting microbes identified by rapid incorporation of plant-derived carbon into RNAProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2007
- Greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculturePhilosophical Transactions B, 2007
- Long-Term Consequences of Grazing and Burning on Northern Peatland Carbon DynamicsEcosystems, 2007
- Species-specific Effects of Vascular Plants on Carbon Turnover and Methane Emissions from WetlandsBiogeochemistry, 2005
- Preferential uptake of soil nitrogen forms by grassland plant speciesOecologia, 2004
- Chronic nitrogen enrichment affects the structure and function of the soil microbial community in temperate hardwood and pine forestsForest Ecology and Management, 2004
- Resource-based niches provide a basis for plant species diversity and dominance in arctic tundraNature, 2002
- Acclimatization of soil respiration to warming in a tall grass prairieNature, 2001
- Climatic, edaphic, and biotic controls over storage and turnover of carbon in soilsGlobal Biogeochemical Cycles, 1994
- The effect of soil drying on humus decomposition and nitrogen availabilityPlant and Soil, 1958