Sponsor
This research was supported by the US National Science Foundation (Grants DEB 0949664 - Ecosystem Studies and DEB 1114804 – Long-Term Ecological Research). J. D. was supported by a Fulbright fellowship of the Spanish Ministry of Education and by a FCT Research Fellowship of the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science (SFRH/BDP/87966/2012).
Published In
Global Change Biology
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2014
Subjects
Ecology -- Research, Microbial respiration, Geochemistry -- Environmental aspects, Climatic change, Denitrifying bacteria
Abstract
Understanding the responses of terrestrial ecosystems to global change remains a major challenge of ecological research. We exploited a natural elevation gradient in a northern hardwood forest to determine how reductions in snow accumulation, expected with climate change, directly affect dynamics of soil winter frost, and indirectly soil microbial biomass and activity during the growing season. Soils from lower elevation plots, which accumulated less snow and experienced more soil temperature variability during the winter (and likely more freeze/thaw events), had less extractable inorganic nitrogen (N), lower rates of microbial N production via potential net N mineralization and nitrification, and higher potential microbial respiration during the growing season. Potential nitrate production rates during the growing season were particularly sensitive to changes in winter snow pack accumulation and winter soil temperature variability, especially in spring. Effects of elevation and winter conditions on N transformation rates dif fered from those on potential microbial respiration, suggesting that N-related processes might respond differently to winter climate change in northern hardwood forests than C-related processes.
Rights
To the best of our knowledge, this work was authored as part of a Contributor's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1111/gcb.12624
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/12578
Citation Details
Durán, J., Morse, J., Groffman, P., Campbell, J., Christenson, L., Driscoll, C., & ... Templer, P. (2014). Winter climate change affects growing-season soil microbial biomass and activity in northern hardwood forests. Global Change Biology.