Climate-driven shifts in plant and fungal communities can lead to topsoil carbon loss in alpine ecosystems

The study of 16 alpine ecosystems in Europe highlights that temperature increases may lead to changes on plant and fungal communities resulting in fungal biomass and topsoil carbon content loss. Alpine tundra ecosystems suffer from ongoing warming-induced tree encroachment and vegetation shifts. While the effects of tree line expansion on the alpine ecosystem receive a lot of attention, there is also an urgent need for understanding the effect of climate change on shifts within alpine vegetation itself, and how these shifts will consequently affect soil microorganisms and related ecosystem characteristics such as carbon storage. For this purpose, we explored relationships between climate, soil chemistry, vegetation, and fungal communities across seven mountain ranges at 16 alpine tundra locations in Europe. Among environmental factors, our data highlighted that plant community composition had the most important influence on variation in fungal community composition when considered in combination with other factors, while climatic factors had the most important influence solely. According to our results, we suggest that rising temperature, associated with a replacement of ericoid-dominated alpine vegetation by non-mycorrhizal or arbuscular mycorrhizal herbs and grasses, will induce profound changes in fungal communities toward higher dominance of saprotrophic and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi at the expense of fungal root endophytes. Consequently, topsoil fungal biomass and carbon content will decrease.

Automated summary

A study of alpine ecosystems in Europe shows that temperature increases can lead to changes in plant and fungal communities, resulting in loss of fungal biomass and topsoil carbon content. Ongoing warming-induced tree encroachment and vegetation shifts are affecting alpine tundra ecosystems. Understanding the effects of climate change on shifts within alpine vegetation and its impact on soil microorganisms and carbon storage is crucial.