Simulated Climate Change Enhances Microbial Drought Resilience in Ethiopian Croplands but Not Forests.

ABSTRACT: Climate change and land-use change represent a dual threat to terrestrial ecosystem functioning. In the tropics, forest conversion to agriculture is occurring alongside warming and more pronounced periods of drought. Rainfall after drought induces enormous dynamics in microbial growth (potential soil carbon storage) and respiration (determining carbon loss), affecting the ecosystem carbon budget. We investigated how legacies of drought and warming affected microbial functional (growth and respiration) and structural (16S and ITS amplicon) responses after drought. Rain shelters and open-top chambers (OTCs) were used to simulate drought and warming in tropical cropland and forest sites in Ethiopia. Rain shelters reduced soil moisture by up to 25 vol%, with a bigger effect in the forest, whil

SUBMITTER: Hicks LC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11881793 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature