title: Microbial communities respond to experimental warming, but site matters.
abstract: Because microorganisms are sensitive to temperature, ongoing global warming is predicted to influence microbial community structure and function. We used large-scale warming experiments established at two sites near the northern and southern boundaries of US eastern deciduous forests to explore how microbial communities and their function respond to warming at sites with differing climatic regimes. Soil microbial community structure and function responded to warming at the southern but not the northern site. However, changes in microbial community structure and function at the southern site did not result in changes in cellulose decomposition rates. While most global change models rest on the assumption that taxa will respond similarly to warming across sites and their ranges, these results suggest that the responses of microorganisms to warming may be mediated by differences across the geographic boundaries of ecosystems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee , Knoxville, TN , USA.
authors.forename: Melissa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Cregger
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee , Knoxville, TN , USA ; The Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen , Copenhagen , Denmark.
authors.forename: Nathan J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Sanders
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University , Raleigh, NC , USA.
authors.forename: Robert R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee , Knoxville, TN , USA ; The Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen , Copenhagen , Denmark.
authors.forename: Aimée T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Classen
keywords: Decomposition; Eastern deciduous forests; Ecosystem function; Global warming; Microbial communities; Soil enzyme activity