Warming-Induced Effects on Microbial Communities and Nitrogen Cycling Capacity in Tundra Litter Are Modulated by Herb Abundance and Litter Quality.

ABSTRACT: Climate warming is changing tundra vegetation in the Arctic, with implications for plant litter properties. Warming may thus modify bacterial and fungal communities and their nitrogen (N) cycling capacity in the litter layer, which in turn can affect plant N availability. To address potential warming effects, we characterized the responses of bacterial and fungal communities and their genetically encoded capacity for inorganic N-transformations in the litter layer, as well as ¹⁵N natural abundance in the underlying soil layer as an integrated measure of N processes in the soil, in 16 long-term alpine and Arctic tundra warming experiments distributed across 12 circumpolar locations. Although abundance, diversity, and composition of microbial communities were structured by the loc

SUBMITTER: Jeanbille M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12606403 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature