Winter climate change affects growing‐season soil microbial biomass and activity in northern hardwood forests

• DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12624
• Publication Date: 2014-05-02T14:47:45Z
• Authors: Jorge Durán; Jennifer L. Morse; Peter M. Groffman; John L. Campbell; Lynn M. Christenson; Charles T. Driscoll; Timothy J. Fahey; Melany C. Fisk; Myron J. Mitchell; Pamela H. Templer
• Keywords: Growing season; Soil respiration; Nitrogen Cycle

Understanding the responses of terrestrial ecosystems to global change remains a major challenge ecological research. We exploited natural elevation gradient in northern hardwood forest determine how reductions snow accumulation, expected with climate change, directly affect dynamics soil winter frost, and indirectly microbial biomass activity during growing season. Soils from lower plots, which accumulated less experienced more temperature variability (and likely freeze/thaw events), had extractable inorganic nitrogen (N), rates N production via potential net mineralization nitrification, higher respiration Potential nitrate season were particularly sensitive changes pack accumulation variability, especially spring. Effects conditions on transformation differed those respiration, suggesting that N-related processes might respond differently forests than C-related processes.