ECOSYSTEM CONSEQUENCES OF SOil WARMING Microbes, vegetation, fauna, and soil biogeochem istry

Edited by

JACQUELINE E. MOHAN Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens,

GA, United States

CONTENTS

Contributors

Acknowledgments

Foreword and introduction: Past, present & future

1. Reflections on 27 years of manipulated ecosystem warming in a subalpine meadow

John Harte

xi

xvii xix

lntroduction 2

Overview of the Rocky Mountain biological laboratory climate warming

experiment and auxiliary gradient studies 3

Major findings 5

Some considerations in the design of climate-warming experiments 17

Pluralistic approa€hes overcome obstacles to prediction 20

A population perspective 22

Feedback 23

Keeping it going 24

References 25

Further reading 27

2. Evolutionary consequences of climate change 29

Susana M. Wadgymar, Rachel MacTavish, Jill T. Anderson

Evolutionary responses to climatic changes

Species interactions and coevolution

Summary

References

Further reading

3. Plant reproductive fitness and phenology responses to climate warming: Results from native populations, communities,

29 43

49

50

59

and ecosystems 61

Jacqueline E. Mohan, Susana M. Wadgymar, Daniel E. Winkler, Jill T. Anderson,

Paul T. Frankson, Robert Hannifin, Katherine Benavides, Lara M. Kueppers,

Jerry M. Melillo

lntroduction

The responses of plant fäness components to soil warming

62

63

V

vi Contents

Case study 1: Ternperate forest flowering/fruiting responses to 5°( soil

warrning 66 Case study 2: Low Arctic fruiting responses to 5°( soil and air warrning 70

Phenological traits as biological indicators of clirnate change 81

Case study 3: Tue effects of clirnate warming on desert and dryland systems 87

Conclusions and future efforts 90 References 93

4. Potential rotes of plant biochemistry in mediating ecosystem responses to warming and drought 103

Vidya Suseela

lntroduction 103

Effect of climatic stress on plant tissue quality at its formative stages 105

Effect of clirnatic stress on the resorption of plant rnetabolites 113

Bioavailability of carbon and nitrogen frorn climatically stressed litter 114

References 118

Further reading 124

5. Direct and indirect influences of warming on leaf endophytic fungi: A physiological and compositional approach 125

Stephanie N. Kivlin, Jennifer A. Rudgers

lntroduction 125

Testing the relative influences of warrning on fungal physiology and

cornposition 129

Discussion 134

Conclusions 137

References 138

Further reading 140

6. Microbial responses to experimental soil warming: Five testable hypotheses 141

Kristen M. DeAngelis, Priyanka Roy Chowdhury, Grace Pold, Adriana Romero-Olivares, Serita Frey

lntroduction 141

Hypothesis 1: Temperature sensitivity of rnicrobial functions increases

with declining soil carbon quality over the course of long-terrn warming 143

Hypothesis 2: Moisture limitation associated with warrning alters

microbial carbon cycling via changes in microbial biomass, activity, and

community cornposition 145

Hypothesis 3: Warming-induced changes in aboveground plant

communities drive belowground microbial responses to warrning 146

Contents vii

Hypothesis 4: Warming affects microbial community structure in the short

term, with temperature effects declining over the long term 147

Hypothesis 5: Evolutionary adaptation is a streng driver of microbial

feedbacks to warming 149

Conclusions and future directions 151

References 152

7. Mycorrhizal mediation of plant and ecosystem responses to soil warming 157

Charles C. Cowden, Richard P. Shefferson, Jacqueline E. Mohan

lntroduction 157

Soil nitrogen cycles 159

Soil carbon cycles 161

Plant water stress 163

Biological interactions 164

Synthesis and concerns 166

References 167

Further reading 173

8. Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon 175

Jianwu Tang, Mark A. Bradford, Joanna Carey, Thomas W. Crowther, Megan B. Machmuller, Jacqueline E. Mohan, Katherine Todd-Brown

lntroduction 175

A conceptual model of the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration 177

Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon 179

Temperature sensitivity of soil respiration 183

Temperature sensitivity of soil microbes 186

Temperature sensitivity of enzymes 189

Temperature sensitivity of mycorrhiza 192

Temperature sensitivity of root respiration 194

Modeling temperature sensitivity 197

Summary and recommendations 200

References 201

9. The role of the physical properties of soil in determining biogeochemical responses to soil warming 209

Fernanda Santos, Rebecca Abney, Morgan Barnes, Nathaniel Bogie, Teamrat A. Ghezzehei, Lixia Jin, Kimber Moreland, Benjamin N. Sulman, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe

lntroduction 210

Factors that affect soil temperature 212

viii Contents

Oirect changes to the physical properties of soil and biogeochemical processes 216

Factors and feedbacks that indirectly affect the physical properties of soil 221

lmplications of atmospheric warming for the biogeochemical cycling of

carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus

Synthesis

References

10. Soil warming and winter snowpacks: lmplications for northern forest ecosystem functioning

Rebecca Sanders-DeMott, John L Campbell, Peter M. Groffman, Lindsey E. Rustad, Pamela H. Templer

lntroduction

Site description

Soil warming and winter snowpack studies

lmplications and future directions

References

11 . Soil fauna and their potential responses to warmer soils

Bruce A. Snyder, Mac A. Callaham, Jr.

225

233

236

245

245

247

251

271

272

279

lnvertebrates in soil 279

What about warming? 283

Responses 287

Conclusion 291

References 293

12. Responses of alpine plant communities to climate warming 297

Daniel E. Winkler, Kaitlin C. Lubetkin, Alyssa A. Carrell, Meredith D. Jabis, Van Yang, Lara M. Kueppers

lntroduction 298

A changing alpine environment 301

Climate-warming effects on alpine plant physiology and phenology 307

Climate-warming effects on biotic interactions in alpine ecosystems 312

Climate-warming effects on alpine plant community composition and

distributions 316

Climate-warming effects on alpine ecosystem processes 324

Conclusions and future directions 328

Acknowledgements 330

References 331

Further reading 345

Contents ix

13. Responses of grasslands to experimental warming 347

Lifen Jiang, Junjiong Shao, Zheng Shi, Xuhui Zhou, Zhenghu Zhou, Yiqi Luo

lntroduction

Summary

References

14. Soil warming effects on tropical forests with highly weathered soils

Tana E. Wood, Molly A. Cavaleri, Christian P. Giar::lina, Shafkat Khan, Jacqueline E. Mohan, Andrew T. Nottingham, Sasha C. Reed, Martijn Slot

347

373

374

385

Diversity of tropical ecosystems 386

Tropical versus higher latitude responses to a warming world 387

Methods of measuring changing temperature effects in the tropics 390

Tropical soil responses to warming 397

Warming effects on tropical vegetation 408

Conclusions and future directions 41 7

Acknowledgments 421

References 421

Q~ry m

1 S. Long-term warming research in high-latitude ecosystems: Responses from polar ecosystems and implications for future climate 441

Natasja van Gestel, Sue Natali, Walter Andriuzzi, F. Stuart Chapin III, Sarah Ludwig, John C. Moore, Yamina Pressier, Verity Salmon, Ted Schuur, Rodney Simpson, Diana H. Wall

High-latitude ecosystems

The Arctic

Antarctica (Andriuzzi, van Geste!, Wall)

Parallels and differences between warming responses in the Arctic and

Antarctic

References

Further reading

Author Index

Subject Index

442

446

467

473

476

487

489 559