Tropical regions hold one third of the world’s soil organic carbon, but few experiments have warmed tropical soils in situ. The vulnerability of these soils to climate change-induced losses is uncertain with many hypothesizing these soils would be less sensitive to climate change because already-high temperatures in tropical systems might limit microbial sensitivity or due to increased mineral protection of organic carbon in highly weathered tropical soils. Here we present the results of a deep soil (0–100 cm) warming experiment in a tropical Andisol. Andisols can store large, persistent pools of soil carbon that are protected from decomposition by poorly and non-crystalline minerals (PNCM). In 20 cm depth intervals, we measured key soil properties including carbon, nitrogen, pH, PNCM, bacterial and fungal richness along with temperature, moisture, and CO₂ production. Over a year of soil warming, CO₂ production significantly increased by 50–300% per degree of warming, but only in the top 40 cm of the soil profile in contrast to the results of other deep soil warming experiments. Multimodal analysis supported our hypothesis that high concentrations of PNCM was the primary driver of the lack of CO₂ response, followed by high relative soil moisture and low bacterial richness, which may be a proxy for organic carbon availability. The lack of elevated CO₂ production in response to warming suggests a limited positive feedback to climate change in Andisols driven by their strong mineral protection of organic matter. Therefore, Andisols should be considered high priority restoration or protection areas when considering the management of soil carbon stocks as part of climate action.

热带地区拥有世界上三分之一的土壤有机碳，但很少有实验能够原地加热热带土壤。这些土壤对气候变化引起的损失的脆弱性是不确定的，因为许多假设这些土壤对气候变化的敏感性较低，因为热带系统中已经很高的温度可能会限制微生物的敏感性，或者由于高度风化的热带地区有机碳的矿物保护增加土壤。在这里，我们展示了在热带 Andisol 中进行的深层土壤（0-100 厘米）变暖实验的结果。Andisol 可以储存大量持久的土壤碳库，这些碳库可以防止被劣质和非结晶矿物 (PNCM) 分解。在 20 厘米的深度间隔内，我们测量了关键的土壤特性，包括碳、氮、pH、PNCM、细菌和真菌丰富度以及温度、水分、₂生产。在一年的土壤变暖过程中，CO ₂产量每升高一度显着增加 50-300%，但与其他深层土壤变暖实验的结果相比，仅在土壤剖面的顶部 40 厘米。多峰分析支持我们的假设，即高浓度的 PNCM 是缺乏 CO ₂响应的主要驱动因素，其次是高相对土壤湿度和低细菌丰富度，这可能是有机碳可用性的代表。缺乏升高的 CO ₂因气候变暖而产生的产量表明，由于其对有机物质的强大矿物质保护，Andisos 对气候变化的积极反馈有限。因此，在考虑将土壤碳储量管理作为气候行动的一部分时，应将 Andissol 视为高度优先的恢复或保护区。