Increasing plant species diversity enhances microbial respiration but does not alter its temperature sensitivity in a subtropical karst forest

Abstract

Temperature sensitivity of soil microbial respiration (or soil organic carbon decomposition) is crucial in determining the dynamics of soil organic carbon or carbon cycle-climate feedback under global warming. Though increasing plant species diversity (PSD) has been found to stimulate soil organic carbon accumulation during ecological restoration or afforestation, whether this carbon sink can persist under global warming largely depends on the responses of temperature sensitivity of microbial respiration to PSD. Nevertheless, the latter remains unknown so far. Here, soil microbial respiration and its temperature sensitivity were investigated based on an incubation experiment with soils collected in 43 plots covering a natural gradient of PSD as indexed by Shannon-Weiner index ranging from 0.15 to 3.53 in a subtropical forest with calcareous soil. Increasing PSD stimulated soil microbial respiration by increasing soil water content and microbial biomass but decreasing fungal/bacterial biomass ratio. Nevertheless, PSD had no significant effect on the temperature sensitivity of microbial respiration due to the contrasting effects of soil biotic and abiotic variables. Increasing PSD stimulated temperature sensitivity by enhancing soil pH, or suppressed temperature sensitivity via decreasing fungal/bacterial biomass ratio. These findings suggest that increasing PSD would stimulate microbial respiration along with soil organic carbon accumulation, but not alter the carbon cycle-climate feedback when implementing ecological restoration or afforestation. Additionally, this study, for the first time, provides the mechanism underlying the response of temperature sensitivity of microbial respiration to PSD, which should be considered when assessing the impacts of PSD on soil organic carbon dynamics under climate change.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

plant species diversity / soil microbial respiration / soil organic carbon / subtropical forest / karst region / temperature sensitivity

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