10Temperaturemediatescontinentalscalediversit

ARTICLEReceived11Jun2015|Accepted27May2016|Published5Jul2016Temperaturemediatescontinental-scalediversityofmicrobesinforestsoilsJizhongZhou1,2,3,YeDeng2,4,LinaShen2,ChongqingWen2,QingyunYan2,DaliangNing2,YujiaQin2,KaiXue2,LiyouWu2,ZhiliHe2,JamesW.Voordeckers2,JoyD.VanNostrand2,VanessaBuzzard5,SeanT.Michaletz5,BrianJ.Enquist5,6,MichaelD.Weiser7,MichaelKaspari7,8,RobertWaide9,YunfengYang1&JamesH.Brown9Climatewarmingisincreasinglyleadingtomarkedchangesinplantandanimalbiodiversity,butitremainsunclearhowtemperaturesaffectmicrobialbiodiversity,particularlyinterres-trialsoils.Hereweshowthat,inaccordancewithmetabolictheoryofecology,taxonomicandphylogeneticdiversityofsoilbacteria,fungiandnitrogenfixersareallbetterpredictedbyvariationinenvironmentaltemperaturethanpH.However,theratesofdiversityturnoveracrosstheglobaltemperaturegradientsaresubstantiallylowerthanthoserecordedfortreesandanimals,suggestingthatthediversityofplant,animalandsoilmicrobialcom-munitiesshowdifferentialresponsestoclimatechange.Tothebestofourknowledge,thisisthefirststudydemonstratingthatthediversityofdifferentmicrobialgroupshassignificantlylowerratesofturnoveracrosstemperaturegradientsthanothermajortaxa,whichhasimportantimplicationsforassessingtheeffectsofhuman-causedchangesinclimate,landuseandotherfactors.DOI:10.1038/ncomms12083OPEN1StateKeyJointLaboratoryofEnvironmentSimulationandPollutionControl,SchoolofEnvironment,TsinghuaUniversity,Beijing100084,China.2InstituteforEnvironmentalGenomics,DepartmentofMicrobiologyandPlantBiologyandSchoolofCivilEngineeringandEnvironmentalSciences,UniversityofOklahoma,Norman,Oklahoma73019,USA.3EarthScienceDivision,LawrenceBerkeleyNationalLaboratory,Berkeley,California94270,USA.4CASKeyLaboratoryforEnvironmentalBiotechnology,ResearchCenterforEco-EnvironmentalScience,ChineseAcademyofSciences,Beijing,100085,China.5DepartmentofEcologyandEvolutionaryBiology,UniversityofArizona,Tucson,Arizona85721,USA.6TheSantaFeInstitute,USA,1399HydeParkRd,SantaFe,NewMexico87501,USA.7EEBGraduateProgram,DepartmentofBiology,UniversityofOklahoma,Norman,OK73019,USA.8SmithsonianTropicalResearchInstitute,Balboa0843-03092,RepublicofPanama.9DepartmentofBiology,UniversityofNewMexico,Albuquerque,NewMexico87131,USA.CorrespondenceandrequestsformaterialsshouldbeaddressedtoJ.Z.(email:[e-mail])ortoY.D.(email:[e-mail]).NATURECOMMUNICATIONS|7:12083|DOI:10.1038/ncomms12083|ficandpoliticalchallengesinthe21stcentury3,4.Since1850,theEarth’ssurfacetemperaturehasincreasedby0.76Candisexpectedtoincreasebyanother1.1–6.4Cbytheendofthiscentury2.Asaresultofclimatewarming,precipitationpatternsatregionalandglobalscalesareandwilllikelycontinuetobealtered.Thismagnitudeofclimaticchangeanditsinducedextremeclimaticeventswillprofoundlyaffectecosystemfunctionsandmostlikelyreduceecosystemservices.Climatechangehasprofoundanddiverseeffectsonalllevelsofbiologicalorganizationfromindividualorganismstowhole-biomelevels5.However,thelackofageneraltheoreticalframeworktomechanisticallyandquantitativelylinkhowvariationinabioticenvironmentwillinfluencevariationinecologicalprocessesacrossalltaxalimitsourabilitytopredictfutureimpactswithinandacrossdiversetaxa6.Sincetemperaturedirectlyacceleratesmetabolicratesandbiochemicalprocesses7,8,apromisingframeworkforlinkingabioticenvironmentalchangestocommunitiesistoassesshowtemperatureaffectsorganismalmetabolismandtheninfluencestheirecologyandevolution.Themetabolictheoryofecology(MTE)7,8startsfromfirstprinciplesofbiophysicstoscaleupthekineticeffectsoftemperatureonmetabolismtoratesofevolution,communitystructure,gradientsofdiversityandecosystemprocesses9.Ingeneral,MTEpredictsthatthemetabolismofindividuals,thepopulationgrowthrateandthenumberofspeciesincreaseexponentiallywiththeenvironmentaltemperature(R/eE=kT)7,10,whereRistherateofsomeprocesssuchasmetabolism,populationgrowthorspeciation,eisthebaseofthenaturallogarithm,Eisthe‘activationenergy’thatcharacterizesthetemperaturedependenceofagivenbiologicalprocess,kisBoltzmann’sconstantandTistemperatureinkelvin.Ratesofecologicalandevolutionaryprocesses,includingratesofpopul-ationgrowth,speciesinteractions,mutationandspeciation,areallpredictedtohaveapproximatelythesameexponentialtemperaturedependenceasmetabolicrate,withan‘activationenergy’ofB0.65eV,equivalenttoaQ10ofB2.5(ref.10).Becausethechangesinecosystemprocessratesareultimatelydependentonthechangesinmetabolicdemandsofindividualorganisms,itisexpectedthattemperatureshouldhaveaprofoundinfluenceonecologicalcommunitystructure,andhenceMTEshouldprovideapowerfulframeworkforpredictingtheeffectsofclimatewarmingonbiodiversityandecosystemprocesses6,7,11.However,despiteadecadeofintensiveresearch,empirical11,12andtheoreticalevaluations13ofMTEhaveproducedvariable,butseeminglycontradictoryresults9,14.Further,mostassessmentsofMTEpredictionshavefocusedonplantsandanimals7.Asare