How do soil microbes exert impact on soil respiration and its temperature sensitivity

Understanding how soil microorganisms influence the direction and magnitude of soil carbon feedback to global warming is vital to predict future climate change. Although microbial activities are major contributors to soil respiration (RS ) and its temperature sensitivity (Q10 ), the mechanisms underpinning microbial influence on RS and Q10 remain unclear. Coupling variation partitioning analysis (VPA), correlation analysis and multiple stepwise linear regression analysis, we illustrate that bacteria mainly affect RS and its temperature sensitivity (Q10 ) by shifting bacterial community composition (denoted by principal coordinates analysis). We also found that soil water content (SWC) and available nutrient (AN) were the factor key to changing bacterial community composition (P  0.5), including Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes. Illuminating the mechanisms underpinning the influence of soil microbes on RS and Q10 values is fundamental to understanding mechanistic soil-climate carbon cycles. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.