Experimental warming increases respiration and affects microbial communities of soil wetlands at different elevations of the Argentinean Puna

Highlights

● Under warming soil respiration was higher, but soil microbial biomass was lower.

● Warming effect on soil respiration was higher in soil from the highest elevation.

● Soil respiration was higher in soil with higher soil carbon content.

● Warming increased biomass-specific respiration and enzyme activity.

● The Q ₁₀ did not differ among soils from different elevations.

Abstract

Global warming is expected to increase the rate of soil carbon (C) efflux through enhanced soil microbial processes, mainly in systems, such as high elevation wetlands, storing large quantities of soil organic C. Here, we assessed the impact of experimental warming on respiration and microbial communities of high Andean wetland soils of the Puna region located at three different elevations (3793, 3862, 4206 m a.s.l.). We incubated soils at 10°C and 25°C for 68 days and measured the soil respiration rate and its temperature sensitivity (Q₁₀). Furthermore, we measured biomass and composition and enzymatic activity of soil microbial communities, and initial and final soil C content. Although warming increased soil respiration rates, with more pronounced effect in soils sampled from 4206 m a.s.l., Q₁₀ did not differ between elevations. Soil C content was higher at the highest elevation. Soil microbial biomass, but not enzymatic activity, was lower for warmed soil samples. However, the biomass-specific respiration and biomass-specific enzymatic activity were higher under warming, and in soil from the highest elevation wetland. These results suggest that, in the short-term, warming could stimulate resource allocation to respiration rather than microbial growth, probably related to a reduction in the microbial carbon use efficiency. Simultaneously, soils with higher soil C concentrations could release more CO₂, despite the similar Q₁₀ in the different wetlands. Overall, the soil of these high Andean wetlands could become C sources instead of C sinks, in view of forecasted increasing temperatures, with C-losses at regional scale.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

high-altitude ecosystems / peatlands / temperature / microorganisms / soil CO₂ flux / vegas

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr. Kowaljow for his assistance with laboratory work and Dr. Ignacio Gasparri for his valuable comments to initial results. This work was supported by FONCYT (Grant Nos. PICT 2016-2173, PICT 2018-04228). The authors are researchers and fellows from CONICET.

Author contributions

M. Fernanda Chiappero, M.V. Vaieretti and Andrea E. Izquierdo contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by M. Fernanda Chiappero, M.V. Vaieretti, Norma Gallardo and Andrea E. Izquierdo. The first draft of the manuscript was written by M. Fernanda Chiappero, M.V. Vaieretti and Andrea E. Izquierdo and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Electronic supplementary material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s42832-024-0242-6 and is accessible for authorized users.

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