Effects Of Elevated Atmospheric CO2 On Soil Microbial Biomass, Activity, And Diversity In A Chaparral Ecosystem

This study reports the effects of long-term elevated atmospheric CO₂ on root production and microbial activity, biomass, and diversity in a chaparral ecosystem in southern California. The free air CO₂ enrichment (FACE) ring was located in a stand dominated by the woody shrub Adenostoma fasciculatum. Between 1995 and 2003, the FACE ring maintained an average daytime atmospheric CO₂concentration of 550 ppm. During the last two years of operation, observations were made on soil cores collected from the FACE ring and adjacent areas of chaparral with ambient CO₂ levels. Root biomass roughly doubled in the FACE plot. Microbial biomass and activity were related to soil organic matter (OM) content, and so analysis of covariance was used to detect CO₂ effects while controlling for variation across the landscape. Extracellular enzymatic activity (cellulase and amylase) and microbial biomass C (chloroform fumigation-extraction) increased more rapidly with OM in the FACE plot than in controls, but glucose substrate-induced respiration (SIR) rates did not. The metabolic quotient (field respiration over potential respiration) was significantly higher in FACE samples, possibly indicating that microbial respiration was less C limited under high CO₂. The treatments also differed in the ratio of SIR to microbial biomass C, indicating a metabolic difference between the microbial communities. Bacterial diversity, described by 16S rRNA clone libraries, was unaffected by the CO₂ treatment, but fungal biomass was stimulated. Furthermore, fungal biomass was correlated with cellulase and amylase activities, indicating that fungi were responsible for the stimulation of enzymatic activity in the FACE treatment.