Increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) can affect biotic and abiotic conditions in soil, such as microbial activity and water content1, 2. In turn, these changes might be expected to alter the production and consumption of the important greenhouse gases nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) (refs 2, 3). […]
Most organic carbon (C) in soils eventually turns into CO2 after passing through microbial metabolic pathways, while providing cells with energy and biosynthetic precursors. Therefore, detailed insight into these metabolic processes may help elucidate mechanisms of soil C cycling processes. Here, we describe a modeling approach to quantify the C […]
Elevated atmospheric CO2 generally increases plant productivity and subsequently increases the availability of cellulose in soil to microbial decomposers. As key cellulose degraders, soil fungi are likely to be one of the most impacted and responsive microbial groups to elevated atmospheric CO2. To investigate the impacts of ecosystem type and […]
Global temperature increases and precipitation changes are both expected to alter ecosystem carbon (C) cycling. We tested responses of ecosystem C cycling to simulated climate change using field manipulations of temperature and precipitation across a range of grass-dominated ecosystems along an elevation gradient in northern Arizona. In 2002, we transplanted […]
One difficulty in using bioremediation at a contaminated site is demonstrating that biodegradation is actually occurring in situ. The stable isotope composition of contaminants may help with this, since they can serve as an indicator of biological activity. To use this approach it is necessary to establish how a particular […]
Elevated CO2 is expected to lower plant nutrient concentrations via carbohydrate dilution and increased nutrient use efficiency. Elevated CO2 consistently lowers plant foliar nitrogen, but there is no consensus on CO2 effects across the range of plant nutrients. We used meta-analysis to quantify elevated CO2 effects on leaf, stem, root, […]
Six terrestrial ecosystems in the USA were exposed to elevated atmospheric CO2 in single or multifactorial experiments for more than a decade to assess potential impacts. We retrospectively assessed soil bacterial community responses in all six-field experiments and found ecosystem-specific and common patterns of soil bacterial community response to elevated […]
Plant growth often responds rapidly to experimentally simulated climate change1, 2. Feedbacks can modulate the initial responses3, but these feedbacks are difficult to detect when they operate on long timescales4. We transplanted intact plant–soil mesocosms down an elevation gradient to expose them to a warmer climate and used collectors and […]
Evidence is mounting that extinctions are altering key processes important to the productivity and sustainability of Earth’s ecosystems1, 2, 3, 4. Further species loss will accelerate change in ecosystem processes5, 6, 7, 8, but it is unclear how these effects compare to the direct effects of other forms of environmental […]
Global environmental changes are expected to alter ecosystem carbon and nitrogen cycling, but the interactive effects of multiple simultaneous environmental changes are poorly understood. Effects of these changes on the production of nitrous oxide (N2O), an important greenhouse gas, could accelerate climate change. We assessed the responses of soil N2O […]