Global ecological predictors of the soil priming effect
Identifying the global drivers of soil priming is essential to understanding C cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. We conducted a survey of soils across 86 globally-distributed locations, spanning a wide range of climates, biotic communities, and soil conditions, and evaluated the apparent soil priming effect using 13C-glucose labeling. Here we show that the magnitude of the positive apparent priming effect (increase in CO2 release through accelerated microbial biomass turnover) was negatively associated with SOC content and microbial respiration rates. Our statistical modeling suggests that apparent priming effects tend to be negative in more mesic sites associated with higher SOC contents. In contrast, a single-input of labile C causes positive apparent priming effects in more arid locations with low SOC contents. Our results provide solid evidence that SOC content plays a critical role in regulating apparent priming effects, with important implications for the improvement of C cycling models under global change scenarios.
Citation Information
Publication Year | 2019 |
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Title | Global ecological predictors of the soil priming effect |
DOI | 10.1038/s41467-019-11472-7 |
Authors | Felipe Bastida, Carlos M. Garcia, Noah Fierer, David J. Eldridge, Matthew A. Bowker, Sebastián R. Abades, Fernando D. Alfaro, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Nick A. Cutler, Antonio Gallardo, Laura Garcia-Velazquez, Stephen C. Hart, Patrick E. Hayes, Teresa Hernández, Zeng-Yei Hseu, Nico Jehmlich, Martin Kirchmair, Hans Lambers, Sigrid Neuhauser, Victor M. Peña-Ramírez, Cecilia A. Pérez, Sasha C. Reed, Fernanda Santos, Christina Siebe, Benjamin W. Sullivan, Pankaj Trivedi, Alfonso Vera, Mark A. Williams, Jose M. Moreno, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo |
Publication Type | Article |
Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
Series Title | Nature Communications |
Index ID | 70215261 |
Record Source | USGS Publications Warehouse |
USGS Organization | Southwest Biological Science Center |