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Climate warming in an alpine meadow: differential responses of soil faunal vs. microbial effects on litter decomposition

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Abstract

We investigated the effects of warming on litter decomposition and the contribution of soil organisms (microbes vs. fauna) to it across the cold and warm seasons in an alpine meadow of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Our results showed that (1) warming profoundly increased litter decomposition by ~ 35%, but this warming effect only occurred in coarse-meshed bags (i.e., in the presence of soil fauna) and in warm season; (2) litter decomposition significantly increased by ~ 2.3-fold from fine- to coarse-meshed bags. However, such a mesh effect was only detected in warm (but not cold) season; (3) litter decomposed ~ 6.7 times faster in warm season than in cold season, and this seasonal effect was consistent across ambient and warming climates. Collectively, warm season may greatly promote the role of both fauna and microbes in litter decomposition and determine the amount of annual decomposition. Nevertheless, climate warming may only profoundly stimulate faunal (but not microbial) decomposition, especially during warm season of the alpine meadow.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Drs. Paul Kardol, Yawen Shen and Qiufang Zhang for providing constructive feedback on the manuscript and the staff at the Haibei station of Chinese Academy of Sciences for providing logistic support in the field. We also sincerely thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor-in-chief (Prof. Dr. Paolo Nannipieri) for their helpful comments and suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32101375, 31971528, and 31988102) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2021M700231).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Rui Yin, Wenkuan Qin, Hongyang Zhao, Xudong Wang & Biao Zhu

  2. Qinghai Province Key Laboratory of Restoration Ecology for Cold Regions, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, 810008, China

    Guangmin Cao

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  1. Rui Yin
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  2. Wenkuan Qin
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  3. Hongyang Zhao
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  4. Xudong Wang
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  5. Guangmin Cao
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  6. Biao Zhu
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Correspondence to Biao Zhu.

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Yin, R., Qin, W., Zhao, H. et al. Climate warming in an alpine meadow: differential responses of soil faunal vs. microbial effects on litter decomposition. Biol Fertil Soils 58, 509–514 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-022-01639-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-022-01639-8

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