title: Temperature response of soil respiration largely unaltered with experimental warming.
abstract: The respiratory release of carbon dioxide (CO2) from soil is a major yet poorly understood flux in the global carbon cycle. Climatic warming is hypothesized to increase rates of soil respiration, potentially fueling further increases in global temperatures. However, despite considerable scientific attention in recent decades, the overall response of soil respiration to anticipated climatic warming remains unclear. We synthesize the largest global dataset to date of soil respiration, moisture, and temperature measurements, totaling >3,800 observations representing 27 temperature manipulation studies, spanning nine biomes and over 2 decades of warming. Our analysis reveals no significant differences in the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration between control and warmed plots in all biomes, with the exception of deserts and boreal forests. Thus, our data provide limited evidence of acclimation of soil respiration to experimental warming in several major biome types, contrary to the results from multiple single-site studies. Moreover, across all nondesert biomes, respiration rates with and without experimental warming follow a Gaussian response, increasing with soil temperature up to a threshold of ∼25 °C, above which respiration rates decrease with further increases in temperature. This consistent decrease in temperature sensitivity at higher temperatures demonstrates that rising global temperatures may result in regionally variable responses in soil respiration, with colder climates being considerably more responsive to increased ambient temperatures compared with warmer regions. Our analysis adds a unique cross-biome perspective on the temperature response of soil respiration, information critical to improving our mechanistic understanding of how soil carbon dynamics change with climatic warming.
authors.affiliation: The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543; jcarey@babson.edu jtang@mbl.edu.
authors.forename: Joanna C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Carey
authors.affiliation: The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543; jcarey@babson.edu jtang@mbl.edu.
authors.forename: Jianwu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215.
authors.forename: Pamela H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Templer
authors.affiliation: US Geological Survey, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Woods Hole, MA 02543.
authors.forename: Kevin D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Kroeger
authors.affiliation: Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands.|School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511.
authors.forename: Thomas W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Crowther
authors.affiliation: School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931.
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Burton
authors.affiliation: Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.|Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.|Purdue Climate Change Research Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.
authors.forename: Jeffrey S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Dukes
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Environment Centre Wales, Bangor LL57 2 UW, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Bridget
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Emmett
authors.affiliation: Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824.
authors.forename: Serita D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Frey
authors.affiliation: The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543.
authors.forename: Mary A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Heskel
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019.
authors.forename: Lifen
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523.
authors.forename: Megan B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Machmuller
authors.affiliation: Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30601.
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mohan
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616.
authors.forename: Anne Marie
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Panetta
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108.|Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith South DC, NSW 2751, Australia.
authors.forename: Peter B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Reich
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Environment Centre Wales, Bangor LL57 2 UW, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reinsch
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697.|Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697.
authors.forename: Steven D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Allison
authors.affiliation: Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, University of Hohenheim, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bamminger
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403.
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bridgham
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131.
authors.forename: Scott L
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0193-2892
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.affiliation: Forestry Research Centre, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, 52100 Arezzo, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanbattista
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: de Dato
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108.
authors.forename: William C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Eddy
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721.
authors.forename: Brian J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Enquist
authors.affiliation: Global Ecology Unit, Centre de Recerca Ecòlogica i Aplicacions Forestals (CREAF), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain.|CREAF, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Estiarte
authors.affiliation: Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.|Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Harte
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721.
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Henderson
authors.affiliation: Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403.
authors.forename: Bart R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, DK-1958 Frederiksberg, Denmark.
authors.forename: Klaus Steenberg
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1421-6182
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019.
authors.forename: Yiqi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, University of Hohenheim, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marhan
authors.affiliation: The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543.
authors.forename: Jerry M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Melillo
authors.affiliation: Global Ecology Unit, Centre de Recerca Ecòlogica i Aplicacions Forestals (CREAF), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain.|CREAF, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain.
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peñuelas
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403.|Environmental Science Institute, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403.
authors.forename: Laurel
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pfeifer-Meister
authors.affiliation: Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, University of Hohenheim, 70593 Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Poll
authors.affiliation: The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543.
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rastetter
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215.
authors.forename: Andrew B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Reinmann
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403.
authors.forename: Lorien L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Reynolds
authors.affiliation: Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, DK-1958 Frederiksberg, Denmark.
authors.forename: Inger K
authors.initials: IK
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543.
authors.forename: Gaius R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Shaver
authors.affiliation: Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305.
authors.forename: Aaron L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Strong
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634.
authors.forename: Vidya
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Suseela
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, 1090 GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tietema
keywords: biome; climate change; experimental warming; soil respiration; temperature sensitivity