Long-term elevated precipitation promotes an acid metabolic preference in soil microbial communities in a Tibetan alpine grassland.

ABSTRACT: Alpine ecosystems store vast amounts of soil organic carbon but are highly sensitive to climate change. Despite this, the response of in situ soil microbial metabolic processes, especially carbon substrate utilization, to climatic shifts remains underexplored. Here, we assessed microbial activity by metatranscriptomics in a Tibetan alpine grassland after a decade of experimental warming (+2°C) and altered precipitation (+50% and -50% of ambient precipitation). The experiment revealed that altered precipitation, rather than warming, shaped the active microbial community. Altered precipitation and warming had significant interactions: warming combined with increased precipitation generally suppressed microbial carbohydrate metabolism and methane oxidation, while warming with decreased

SUBMITTER: Fan X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12363203 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature