Elevated CO₂ decreases soil carbon stability in Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

Abstract The lack of ecosystem-scale CO 2 enrichment experiments in alpine regions considerably restricts our ability to predict the feedback of the global carbon (C) cycle to climate change. Here we investigate soil C response in an experiment with 5-year CO 2 enrichment and nitrogen (N) fertilization in a Tibetan meadow (4585 m above the sea level). We found that despite non-significant increase in bulk soil C pool, elevated CO 2 dramatically altered the allocation of C in different soil fractions and soil mineralization potentials. By changing soil microbial composition and enhancing enzyme activities, elevated CO 2 significantly accelerated soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization rates and stimulated the microbial utilization of ‘old C’ relative to that of ‘new C’. Furthermore, N fertilization under elevated CO 2 altered the decomposition process, increased the fungi to bacteria ratio, and decreased the coarse particulate organic matter pool and enzyme activities, indicating that N fertilization counters the CO 2 fertilization effect. Overall, our findings suggest a growing threat of elevated CO 2 in reducing SOM stability, and highlight the key role of N availability in driving soil C turnover under elevated CO 2 .