Conant, R.T., Ryan, M.G., Ågren, G.I., Birge, H.E., Davidson, E.A., Eliasson, P.E., Evans, S.E., Frey, S.D., Giardina, C.P., Hopkins, F.M., Hyvönen, R., Kirschbaum, M.U.F., Lavallee, J.M., Leifeld, J., Parton, W.J., Steinweg, J.M., Wallenstein, M.D., Wetterstedt, J.Å.M, Bradford, M.A. (2011). Temperature and soil organic matter decomposition rates – synthesis of current knowledge and a way forward. Global Change Biology 17: 3392-3404.
Abstract.
The response of
soil organic matter (OM) decomposition to increasing temperature is a critical
aspect of ecosystem responses to global change. The impacts of climate warming
on decomposition dynamics have not been resolved due to apparently contradictory
results from field and lab experiments, most of which has focused on labile
carbon with short turnover times. But the majority of total soil carbon stocks
are comprised of organic carbon with turnover times of decades to centuries.
Understanding the response of these carbon pools to climate change is essential
for forecasting longer-term changes in soil carbon storage. Herein, we briefly
synthesize information from recent studies that have been conducted using a wide
variety of approaches. In our effort to understand research to-date, we derive a
new conceptual model that explicitly identifies the processes controlling soil
OM availability for decomposition and
allows a more explicit description of the factors regulating OM decomposition
under different circumstances. It explicitly defines resistance of soil OM to
decomposition as being due either to its chemical conformation (quality) or its
physico-chemical protection from decomposition. The former is embodied in the
depolymerization process, the latter by adsorption/desorption and aggregate
turnover. We hypothesize a strong role for variation in temperature sensitivity
as a function of reaction rates for both. We conclude that important advances in
understanding the temperature response of the processes that control substrate
availability, depolymerization, microbial efficiency, and enzyme production will
be needed to predict the fate of soil carbon stocks in a warmer world.
Key words: Decomposition, experiments, new conceptual model, review, soil carbon, temperature sensitivity.