Community-level respiration of prokaryotic microbes may rise with global warming

Thomas P. Smith (), Thomas J. H. Thomas, Bernardo García-Carreras, Sofía Sal, Gabriel Yvon-Durocher, Thomas Bell and Samrāt Pawar ()
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Thomas P. Smith: Imperial College London
Thomas J. H. Thomas: Imperial College London
Bernardo García-Carreras: Imperial College London
Sofía Sal: Imperial College London
Gabriel Yvon-Durocher: University of Exeter
Thomas Bell: Imperial College London
Samrāt Pawar: Imperial College London

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Understanding how the metabolic rates of prokaryotes respond to temperature is fundamental to our understanding of how ecosystem functioning will be altered by climate change, as these micro-organisms are major contributors to global carbon efflux. Ecological metabolic theory suggests that species living at higher temperatures evolve higher growth rates than those in cooler niches due to thermodynamic constraints. Here, using a global prokaryotic dataset, we find that maximal growth rate at thermal optimum increases with temperature for mesophiles (temperature optima $$\lesssim 4{5}\ ^{\circ }$$≲45∘C), but not thermophiles ($$\gtrsim 4{5}\ ^{\circ }$$≳45∘C). Furthermore, short-term (within-day) thermal responses of prokaryotic metabolic rates are typically more sensitive to warming than those of eukaryotes. Because climatic warming will mostly impact ecosystems in the mesophilic temperature range, we conclude that as microbial communities adapt to higher temperatures, their metabolic rates and therefore, biomass-specific CO$${}_{2}$$2 production, will inevitably rise. Using a mathematical model, we illustrate the potential global impacts of these findings.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13109-1

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