Microbial Nitrogen Cycling Becomes Conservative and Resilient to Long-Term Warming in High-Latitude Carbon-Limited Soils
Zevenhuizen, Ana Leticia (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Richter, Andreas (University of Vienna. Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science)
Fuchslueger, Lucia (University of Vienna. Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science)
Prommer, Judith (University of Vienna. Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science)
Janssens, Ivan (University of Antwerpen. Department of Biology)
Verbrigghe, Niel (Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food)
Peñuelas, Josep (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Sigurdsson, Bjarni D. (Agricultural University of Iceland)
Marañón Jiménez, Sara (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)

Fecha:	2025
Resumen:	High-latitude soils are warming rapidly due to climate change, raising concerns about long-term impacts on nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) cycling. Here, we investigate how decadal soil warming affects microbial N transformations in subarctic grasslands using natural geothermal gradients with soil temperatures ranging from ambient to +12. 3°C. Seasonal measurements of N-pools and gross N transformation rates-including the production and uptake of amino acids, ammonium, and nitrate-were used to characterize microbial responses across warming intensities and time. Warming enhanced microbial turnover of amino acids by accelerating both gross amino acid production and uptake, while net depolymerization remained unchanged. In contrast, ammonium production remained stable, but its microbial uptake increased significantly with temperature. These decoupled responses suggest a microbial shift toward preferential use of organic N sources under warming, likely driven by reduced soil C availability. This strategy provides a dual source of C and N, enabling microbes to sustain high metabolic activity while limiting additional N losses. Supporting this, total soil N stocks declined early in the warming period-by 0. 11 tons of nitrogen per hectare per degree Celsius over 5 years-but remained stable thereafter, indicating a transition toward more conservative microbial N cycling. Together, these findings reveal that long-term warming restructures microbial N use strategies, favoring tight organic N recycling and mineral N conservation. These physiological adjustments may buffer N losses under future warming and should be integrated into models predicting high-latitude ecosystem responses to climate change.
Ayudas:	Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2021-129081OA-I00 European Commission 676108 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación PRE2022-101956
Nota:	Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Derechos:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Lengua:	Anglès
Documento:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Materia:	Carbon and nitrogen losses ; Climate change ; High-latitude ecosystems ; Plant-soil interactions ; Soil microorganisms ; Soil warming
Publicado en:	Global change biology, Vol. 32, Num. 1 (December 2025) , art. e70673, ISSN 1365-2486

DOI: 10.1111/gcb.70673
PMID: 41467360

13 p, 1.7 MB

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