Effects of simulated warming on soil microbial community diversity and composition across diverse ecosystems

Soil warming can directly affect the microbial community, or indirectly affect the microbial community by affecting soil moisture, nutrient availability, vegetation growth, etc. However, the response of microorganisms to soil warming is complex, and there is no uniform conclusion on the impact and mechanism of warming on microbial diversity. As the global climate gradually warms, a comprehensive assessment of warming on soil microbial community changes is essential to understand and predict the response of microbial geochemical processes to soil warming. Here, we perform a meta-analysis of studies to investigate changes in soil microbial communities along soil warming gradients and the response of soil microbes to elevated temperature in different ecosystems. We found that the α diversity index of soil microorganisms decreased significantly with the increase in temperature, and the β diversity altered with the increase in soil temperature and the shifts in ecosystem. Most bacteria only alter when the temperature rises higher. Compared to the non-warming condition, the relative abundance of Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Planctomycetes and Verrucomicrobia decreased by 19 %, 11 %, 19 %, 8 % and 6 %, respectively, and the relative abundance of Firmicutes increased by 34 %. Compared to farmland, forest, grassland and tundra ecosystems, soil microorganisms in wetland ecosystems were more sensitive to temperature increase, and the changes in bacteria were consistent with the overall alterations. This meta-analysis revealed significant changes in the composition of microbial communities on soil warming. With the decrease in biodiversity under increasing temperature conditions, these dominant microbiomes, which can grow well under high-temperature conditions, will play a stronger role in regulating nutrient and energy flow. Our analysis adds a global perspective to the temperature response of soil microbes, which is critical to improving our understanding of the mechanisms of how soil microbes change in response to climate warming.