Soil microbes may adapt to climate warming, potentially reducing the warming‐induced increase in microbial carbon emissions such as carbon dioxide, and thereby helping to mitigate climate change. Yet, soil microbes are subjected to various global change stresses (e.g., warming, drought, flooding, and land‐use changes), altering their biodiversity, which challenges microbial adaptation to climate change. Here, we created microbial diversity gradients in microcosms at two different temperatures using soils from a 2000‐km field survey. We found that reduced microbial diversity weakens the thermal adaptation of soil microbial respiration and can further enhance the microbial respiratory temperature sensitivity over time. Our analyses further revealed that the negative impact of microbial diversity losses is linked to the decline of keystone microbial taxa, which can adapt to temperature changes and are crucial for the community's ability to compensate for the temperature‐driven effects on soil respiration in the long term. Taken together, our study provides new insights into the key role of microbial diversity in driving the thermal response of soil heterotrophic respiration, suggesting that any global change‐driven shifts in microbial diversity can have critical consequences for the future of carbon stocks.

中文翻译：

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微生物多样性的丧失限制了土壤缓解气候变化的能力


土壤微生物可能会适应气候变暖，从而可能减少变暖引起的微生物碳排放（如二氧化碳）的增加，从而有助于缓解气候变化。然而，土壤微生物受到各种全球变化压力（例如，变暖、干旱、洪水和土地利用变化），改变了它们的生物多样性，这对微生物对气候变化的适应提出了挑战。在这里，我们使用来自 2000 公里实地调查的土壤在两个不同温度下在微观世界中创建了微生物多样性梯度。我们发现，微生物多样性的减少会削弱土壤微生物呼吸的热适应能力，并随着时间的推移进一步增强微生物呼吸温度敏感性。我们的分析进一步揭示了微生物多样性损失的负面影响与关键微生物类群的减少有关，关键微生物类群可以适应温度变化，并且对于群落长期补偿温度驱动对土壤呼吸的影响的能力至关重要。综上所述，我们的研究为微生物多样性在驱动土壤异养呼吸的热响应中的关键作用提供了新的见解，表明任何由全球变化驱动的微生物多样性变化都可能对碳储量的未来产生严重影响。