Experimental warming alters free-living nitrogen fixation in a humid tropical forest.

ABSTRACT: Microbial nitrogen (N) fixation accounts for c. 97% of natural N inputs to terrestrial ecosystems. These microbes can be free-living in the soil and leaf litter (asymbiotic) or in symbiosis with plants. Warming is expected to increase N-fixation rates because warmer temperatures favor the growth and activity of N-fixing microbes. We investigated the effects of warming on asymbiotic components of N fixation at a field warming experiment in Puerto Rico. We analyzed the function and composition of bacterial communities from surface soil and leaf litter samples. Warming significantly increased asymbiotic N-fixation rates in soil by 55% (to 0.002 kg ha^-1 yr^-1) and by 525% in leaf litter (to 14.518 kg ha^-1 yr^-1). This increase in N fixation was associa

SUBMITTER: Bartz PM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12630463 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature