Tropical Forest Soil Microbiome Modulates Leaf Heat Tolerance More Strongly Under Warming Than Ambient Conditions.

ABSTRACT: It is unclear how plants respond to increasing temperatures. Leaf heat tolerance (LHT) is often at its upper limit in tropical forests, suggesting that climate change might negatively impact these forests. We hypothesized that intraspecific variation in LHT might be associated with changes in the soil microbiome, which might also respond to climate. We hypothesized that warming would increase LHT through changes in the soil microbiome: we combined an in situ tropical warming experiment with a shade house experiment in Puerto Rico. The shade house experiment consisted of growing seedlings of Guarea guidonia, a dominant forest species, under different soil microbiome treatments (reduced arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, reduced plant pathogens, reduced microbes, and unaltered) and soil in

SUBMITTER: Hernandes Villani G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12077931 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature