Mesocosm Experiments Reveal Global Warming Accelerates Macrophytes Litter Decomposition and Alters Decomposition-Related Bacteria Community Structure

Global climate change scenarios predict that lake water temperatures will increase up to 4 degrees C and extreme weather events, such as heat waves and large temperature fluctuations, will occur more frequently. Such changes may result in the increase of aquatic litter decomposition and on shifts in diversity and structure of bacteria communities in this period. We designed a two-month mesocosm experiment to explore how constant (+4 degrees C than ambient temperature) and variable (randomly +0 similar to 8 degrees C than ambient temperature) warming treatment will affect the submerged macrophyte litter decomposition process. Our data suggests that warming treatments may accelerate the decomposition of submerged macrophyte litter in shallow lake ecosystems, and increase the diversity of decomposition-related bacteria with community composition changed the relative abundance of Proteobacteria, especially members of Alphaproteobacteria increased while that of Firmicutes (mainly Bacillus) decreased.

Automated summary

Global climate change scenarios predict that lake water temperatures will increase, leading to more frequent extreme weather events and potential changes in diversity and structure of bacteria communities. Our study shows that warming treatments may accelerate submerged macrophyte litter decomposition and increase the diversity of decomposition-related bacteria.