Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Differential Responses Of Carbon-Degrading Enzyme Activities To Warming: Implications For Soil Respiration, Ji Chen, Yiqi Luo, Pablo García-Palacios, Junji Cao, Marina Dacal, Xuhui Zhou, Jianwei Li, Jianyang Xia, Shuli Niu, Huiyi Yang, Shelby Shelton, Wei Guo, Kees Jan Van Groenigen

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

Extracellular enzymes catalyze rate-limiting steps in soil organic matter decomposition, and their activities (EEAs) play a key role in determining soil respiration (SR). Both EEAs and SR are highly sensitive to temperature, but their responses to climate warming remain poorly understood. Here, we present a meta-analysis on the response of soil cellulase and ligninase activities and SR to warming, synthesizing data from 56 studies. We found that warming significantly enhanced ligninase activity by 21.4% but had no effect on cellulase activity. Increases in ligninase activity were positively correlated with changes in SR, while no such relationship was found for cellulase. …