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Long-term elevated CO2 and warming enhance microbial necromass carbon accumulation in a paddy soil

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Abstract

Soil microbial necromass plays a critical role in soil organic C (SOC) sequestration, while the long-term response of microbial necromass to climate change remains largely unclear. Here, we used amino sugars as biomarkers and examined their variation after 8 years of continuous manipulation of elevated CO2 (eCO2), warming, and their combined interaction in a paddy soil. Our results showed that eCO2 increased the concentrations of all amino sugar compounds by 6.5–28.9% while warming had no effect on the accumulation of glucosamine and galactosamine but increased muramic acid concentration by 22.1–29.1%. Elevated CO2 increased the contribution of microbial necromass C to SOC storage, mainly by increasing fungal-derived C, whereas warming increased the bacterial-derived C proportion in SOC. Furthermore, the combined effect of eCO2 and warming yielded the highest total microbial necromass and SOC accumulation, although the ratio of fungal to bacterial necromass C in SOC remained unchanged. Structural equation models showed that root biomass had an indirect positive effect on total amino sugar concentration, mainly through increased microbial biomass, whereas N-acetylglucosaminidase activity had a direct negative effect on total amino sugar accumulation. These differential responses of microbial necromass to climate change may further alter the sequestration of SOC. This study is only based on one sampling time, and future research should involve more sampling times so as to have the temporal dynamics of the studied properties. Our findings emphasize the contribution of the microbial-derived C to soil C stock under long-term elevated CO2 and warming in a rice-wheat rotation system, which reveals an important mechanism of microbial-mediated C sequestration under climate change.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Paolo Nannipieri, the Editor in Chief, the anonymous reviewers, and Dr. Aaron R. Gall for their very valuable comments in improving both the language and scientific quality of the manuscript.

Funding

This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant numbers 41877097 and 41877096 and the National Key R&D Program of China under grant No. 2017YFD0300202.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Resource, Ecosystem and Environment of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China

    Zhiwei Liu, Xiuxia Liu, Xiulan Wu, Rongjun Bian, Xiaoyu Liu, Jufeng Zheng, Xuhui Zhang, Kun Cheng, Lianqing Li & Genxing Pan

  2. Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Waste Resource Utilization, Nanjing, China

    Zhiwei Liu, Xiuxia Liu, Xiulan Wu, Rongjun Bian, Xiaoyu Liu, Jufeng Zheng, Xuhui Zhang, Kun Cheng, Lianqing Li & Genxing Pan

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  1. Zhiwei Liu
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Liu, Z., Liu, X., Wu, X. et al. Long-term elevated CO2 and warming enhance microbial necromass carbon accumulation in a paddy soil. Biol Fertil Soils 57, 673–684 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-021-01557-1

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