Soil Microbial Community Responses to Multiple Experimental Climate Change Drivers

Researchers agree that climate change factors such as rising atmospheric [CO2] and warming will likely interact to modify ecosystem properties and processes. However, the response of the microbial communities that regulate ecosystem processes is less predictable. We measured the direct and interactive effects of climatic change on soil fungal and bacterial communities (abundance and composition) in a multifactor climate change experiment that exposed a constructed old-field ecosystem to different atmospheric CO2 concentration (ambient, +300 ppm), temperature (ambient, +3 degrees C), and precipitation (wet and dry) might interact to alter soil bacterial and fungal abundance and community structure in an…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Awards: AC05-00OR22725, DE-FG02-, FG02-02ER63366, DE-AC05, DE-FG02, 00OR22725
• B
  Battelle

  Awards: DE-AC05, DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OO
  Office of Science

  Awards: DE-AC05-00OR22725, AC05-00OR22725
• LD
  Laboratory Directed Research and Development

  Award: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OR
  Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  Award: AC05-00OR22725