Rapid Response to Experimental Warming of a Microbial Community Inhabiting High Arctic Patterned Ground Soil

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Surface temperatures in the Arctic are rising more rapidly than elsewhere on Earth. Precipitation patterns in the region are also altering, with an increased incidence of heavy rainfall. However, the effects of warming and increased water availability on soil microbes—which have pivotal roles in nutrient cycling and greenhouse gas exchange—inhabiting the sparsely vegetated patterned ground soils that are widespread across the High Arctic are not well understood. Here, we warmed patterned ground soils on Svalbard with open top chambers and irrigated the soils twice each summer. After four years, a 1 °C rise in summertime near-surface soil temperature affected the exchange of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO(2)) and methane (CH(4)), with warmed soils emitting 44% more CO(2), and consuming 78% more CH(4), than soils that were not warmed. Warming also increased soil bacterial abundance by 32%, and, of the 40 most abundant bacterial taxa, led to both reductions and increases in the relative abundances of four taxa. Irrigation did not influence the measured variables. At the current rate of summertime warming in soils on Svalbard (0.8 °C per decade), we anticipate that these effects will become apparent in the natural environment by approximately the mid 2030s. ABSTRACT: The influence of climate change on microbial communities inhabiting the sparsely vegetated patterned ground soils that are widespread across the High Arctic is poorly understood. Here, in a four-year experiment on Svalbard, we warmed patterned ground soil with open top chambers and biannually irrigated the soil to predict the responses of its microbial community to rising temperatures and precipitation. A 1 °C rise in summertime soil temperature caused 44% and 78% increases in CO(2) efflux and CH(4) consumption, respectively, and a 32% increase in the frequency of bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA genes. Bacterial alpha diversity was unaffected by the treatments, but, of the 40 most frequent bacterial taxa, warming caused 44–45% reductions in the relative abundances of a Sphingomonas sp. and Ferruginibacter sp. and 33–91% increases in those of a Phenylobacterium sp. and a member of the Acetobacteraceae. Warming did not influence the frequency of fungal internal transcribed spacer 2 copies, and irrigation had no effects on the measured variables. Our study suggests rapid changes to the activities and abundances of microbes, and particularly bacteria, in High Arctic patterned ground soils as they warm. At current rates of soil warming on Svalbard (0.8 °C per decade), we anticipate that similar effects to those reported here will manifest themselves in the natural environment by approximately the mid 2030s.