Climate change alters temporal dynamics of alpine soil microbial functioning and biogeochemical cycling via earlier snowmelt.

ABSTRACT: Soil microbial communities regulate global biogeochemical cycles and respond rapidly to changing environmental conditions. However, understanding how soil microbial communities respond to climate change, and how this influences biogeochemical cycles, remains a major challenge. This is especially pertinent in alpine regions where climate change is taking place at double the rate of the global average, with large reductions in snow cover and earlier spring snowmelt expected as a consequence. Here, we show that spring snowmelt triggers an abrupt transition in the composition of soil microbial communities of alpine grassland that is closely linked to shifts in soil microbial functioning and biogeochemical pools and fluxes. Further, by experimentally manipulating snow cover we show that this ab

SUBMITTER: Broadbent AAD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8319178 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature