ArticleNature climate change2018
Microbial temperature sensitivity and biomass change explain soil carbon loss with warming.
Article in Nature climate change, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 93 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
93 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 451 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ecosystem-Dependent Responses of Microbial Necromass Carbon to Warming Are Governed by the Balance Between Necromass Formation and Decomposition.Global change biology · 2026Pooled it
- The QScientific reports · 2026Pooled it
- Constrained Forest Methane Sink by Thermal Adaptation of Soil Methanotrophs.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Response of nitrogen-fixing plant symbioses to changing temperature.Journal of integrative plant biology · 2026Review
- Soil Warming Shifts Seasonal and Soil Depth-Related Root Growth Dynamics in Subarctic Grasslands.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Ecological acclimation of microbial communities to rising temperatures: growth, respiration, and interactions.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Review
- Drought and Warming-Induced Drying Suppress Soil Respiration but Amplify Rewetting-Induced Pulses in a Temperate Pasture.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Coupled Above- and Belowground Ecosystem Stability Worldwide.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Warming-induced unstable microbial community metabolically lowers straw-carbon sequestration in paddy soils.Journal of advanced research · 2026Article
- Conservation agriculture buffers persistent carbon loss under warming by microbial adaptation.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Microbial Nitrogen Cycling Becomes Conservative and Resilient to Long-Term Warming in High-Latitude Carbon-Limited Soils.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Summer drought impacts micropredator abundance and microbial food web structure in a rewetted fen peatland.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Temperature Thresholds Govern Microbial-Mediated Dissolved Organic Carbon Dynamics in Coastal Ecosystems.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Shifts in Microbial Thermal Traits Mitigate Heat-Induced Carbon Losses in Soils.Global change biology · 2025Article
- Hydrology masks warming effects on microbial communities in salt marsh soils.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2025Article
- Increased Belowground Carbon Allocation Reduces Soil Carbon Losses Under Long-Term Warming.Global change biology · 2025Article
- Aligning global mercury mitigation with climate action.Nature communications · 2025Review
- Long-term climate warming weakens positive plant biomass responses globally.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Increased microbial carbon use efficiency upon abrupt permafrost thaw.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Soil Respiration Responses to Prolonged Warming Vary Seasonally in a Subarctic Grassland.Global change biology · 2025Article
33 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Soil microorganisms control carbon losses from soils to the atmosphere1-3, yet their responses to climate warming are often short-lived and unpredictable4-7. Two mechanisms, microbial acclimation and substrate depletion, have been proposed to explain temporary warming effects on soil microbial activity8-10. However, empirical support for either mechanism is unconvincing. Here we used geothermal temperature gradients (> 50 years of field warming)11 and a short-term experiment to show that microbial activity (gross rates of growth, turnover, respiration and carbon uptake) is intrinsically temperature sensitive and does not acclimate to warming (+ 6 ºC) over weeks or decades. Permanently accelerated microbial activity caused carbon loss from soil. However, soil carbon loss was temporary because substrate depletion reduced microbial biomass and constrained the influence of microbes over the ecosystem. A microbial biogeochemical model12-14 showed that these observations are reproducible through a modest, but permanent, acceleration in microbial physiology. These findings reveal a mechanism by which intrinsic microbial temperature sensitivity and substrate depletion together dictate warming effects on soil carbon loss
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.