Soil Microbes as Key Drivers of Global Carbon Cycling in the Context of Climatic Change
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58445/rars.3742Keywords:
soil ecology, global carbon cycle, climate change, carbon cycling, microbiology, global warming, microbial metabolism, terrestrial ecosystems, metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, nutrient cyclingAbstract
Soil microbial communities function as key regulators of the global carbon cycle, controlling the largest carbon pool found in terrestrial ecosystems. Ongoing climate change, particularly rising temperatures and increased atmospheric carbon dioxide, influences these communities through both direct effects on microbial metabolism and indirect interactions mediated by plants. Evidence gathered in this review indicates that long term warming commonly promotes an “oligotrophic shift,” where microbial assemblages become dominated by organisms adapted to nutrient-poor conditions and more complex, resistant carbon substrates. In contrast, elevated carbon dioxide enhances plant root activity and increases the release of organic compounds into the soil, leading to rhizosphere driven processes that can stimulate the decomposition of previously stable soil organic matter through priming effects.
A key conceptual advance highlighted here is the understanding that the persistence of soil organic matter is not determined solely by its chemical composition, but instead emerges from ecosystem-level controls, including microbial accessibility and physical protection within the soil matrix. Despite recent progress, a major challenge remains in connecting fine-scale microbial mechanisms with large scale Earth system models. Integrating detailed process-based information such as functional gene activity and microbial carbon use efficiency will be essential to move beyond simplified modeling approaches and improve predictions of climate carbon feedbacks. Overall, this review underscores the fundamental role of soil microbial processes in shaping the future stability of global carbon reserves.
References
Albright et al. (2020). Soil bacterial and fungal richness forecast patterns of dissolved organic carbon. Frontiers in Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.542220
Anderson, O. R. (2011). Soil Respiration, Climate Change and the Role of Microbial Communities. Protist. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protis.2011.04.001
Bardgett et al. (2008). Microbial contributions to climate change through carbon cycle feedbacks. ISME Journal. https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2008.58
Bond-Lamberty et al. (2016). Soil Respiration and Bacterial Structure and Function after 17 Years. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150599
Carney et al. (2007). Altered soil microbial community at elevated carbon dioxide leads to loss of soil carbon. PNAS. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0610045104
Cavicchioli et al. (2019). Scientists’ warning to humanity: microorganisms and climate change. Nature Reviews Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-019-0222-5
Classen et al. (2015). Direct and indirect effects of climate change on soil microbial interactions. Ecosphere. https://doi.org/10.1890/ES15-00217.1
DeAngelis et al. (2015). Long-term forest soil warming alters microbial communities. Frontiers in Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2015.00104
Drigo et al. (2008). Climate change goes underground: effects of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide. Biology and Fertility of Soils. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-008-0277-3
Falkowski et al. (2008). The microbial engines that drive Earth's biogeochemical cycles. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1153213
Frey et al. (2008). Microbial biomass and community structure after 12 years of soil warming. Soil Biology & Biochemistry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2008.07.020
Frey et al. (2013). The temperature response of soil microbial efficiency and its feedback to climate. Nature Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1796
Glassman et al. (2018). Decomposition responses to climate depend on microbial community composition. PNAS. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1811269115
Gougoulias et al. (2014). The role of soil microbes in the global carbon cycle. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.6577
Hartley et al. (2008). Soil microbial respiration in arctic soil does not acclimate to temperature. Ecology Letters. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01251.x
He et al. (2014). Distinct responses of soil microbial communities to elevated carbon dioxide and ozone. ISME Journal. https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2013.177
IPCC (2007). Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. http://www.ipcc.ch
Jassey et al. (2022). Contribution of soil algae to the global carbon cycle. New Phytologist. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.17950
Li et al. (2023). Dissecting the horizontal gene transfer network of carbon metabolic genes in soil-borne microbiota. Frontiers in Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1173748
Liang et al. (2017). The importance of anabolism in microbial control over soil carbon storage. Nature Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmicrobiol.2017.105
Liu et al. (2018). New insights into the role of microbial community composition in driving soil respiration rates. Soil Biology & Biochemistry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2018.07.012
Liu et al. (2024). Effects of returning peach branch waste to fields on soil microbial communities. Frontiers in Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1406661
Medina, M. A. (2019). The effects of warming on carbon and microbial community wetland dynamics. Thesis. https://dc.ewu.edu/theses/571
Patoine et al. (2022). Drivers and trends of global soil microbial carbon over two decades. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31833-z
Pold et al. (2015). Two decades of warming increases diversity of a potentially lignolytic bacterial community. Frontiers in Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2015.00480
Schmidt et al. (2011). Persistence of soil organic matter as an ecosystem property. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10386
Wieder et al. (2015). Explicitly representing soil microbial processes in Earth system models. Global Biogeochemical Cycles. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gb005188
Xue et al. (2016). Warming Alters Expressions of Microbial Functional Genes. Frontiers in Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00668
Yu et al. (2018). Elevated carbon dioxide and Warming Altered Grassland Microbial Communities. Frontiers in Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2018.01790
Zhou et al. (2020). Meta-analysis of the impacts of global change factors on microbial diversity. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16881-7
Downloads
Posted
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Subhadeep Chaki
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
- The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:
- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license
