The carbon-quality temperature hypothesis: Fact or artefact?

Climate warming can reduce global soil carbon stocks by enhancing microbial decomposition. However, the magnitude of this loss remains uncertain because the temperature sensitivity of the decomposition of the major fraction of soil carbon, namely resistant carbon, is not fully known. It is now believed that the resistance of soil carbon mostly depends on microbial accessibility of soil carbon with physical protection being the primary control of the decomposition of protected carbon, which is insensitive to temperature changes. However, it is still unclear whether the temperature sensitivity of the decomposition of unprotected carbon, for example, carbon that is not protected by the soil mineral matrix, may depend on the chemical recalcitrance of carbon compounds. In particular, the carbon-quality temperature (CQT) hypothesis asserts that recalcitrant low-quality carbon is more temperature-sensitive to decomposition than labile high-quality carbon. If the hypothesis is correct, climate warming could amplify the loss of unprotected, but chemically recalcitrant, carbon and the resultant CO2 release from soils to the atmosphere. Previous research has supported this hypothesis based on reported negative relationships between temperature sensitivity and carbon quality, defined as the decomposition rate at a reference temperature. Here we show that negative relationships can arise simply from the arbitrary choice of reference temperature, inherently invalidating those tests. To avoid this artefact, we defined the carbon quality of different compounds as their uncatalysed reaction rates in the absence of enzymes. Taking the uncatalysed rate as the carbon quality index, we found that the CQT hypothesis is not supported for enzyme-catalysed reactions, which showed no relationship between carbon quality and temperature sensitivity. The lack of correlation in enzyme-catalysed reactions implies similar temperature sensitivity for microbial decomposition of soil carbon, regardless of its quality, thereby allaying concerns of acceleration of warming-induced decomposition of recalcitrant carbon.

Automated summary

Climate warming can reduce global soil carbon stocks by enhancing microbial decomposition. Previous research suggested a negative relationship between carbon quality and temperature sensitivity, implying that recalcitrant carbon is more sensitive to temperature. However, new research indicates that this relationship may be an invalid artifact caused by the arbitrary choice of reference temperature. By using the uncatalysed reaction rate as the carbon quality index, it was found that there is no relationship between carbon quality and temperature sensitivity in enzyme-catalysed reactions. This suggests that the temperature sensitivity of microbial decomposition of soil carbon is similar regardless of its quality, alleviating concerns about the acceleration of warming-induced decomposition of recalcitrant carbon.