The abstract of this paper:
Agricultural soil microbiomes are structurally and functionally more resistant to warming than adjacent natural ecosystems
Shuo Jiao, Haibo Pan, Pablo García-Palacios, Hairong Tu, Yiran Zhang, Yu Liu, Hang Gao, Beibei Chen, Ziheng Peng, Shi Chen, Jiejun Qi, Chunling Liang, Xiaomeng Li, Yang Wang, Chujie Jin, Min Gao, Jiai Liu, Yihe Wang, Junhui Zhao, Lan Jiang, Ferran Romero, Samiran Banerjee, Yunfeng Yang, Yahai Lu, …Gehong Wei Show authors
Nature Food (2026) Cite this article
Abstract
Agricultural soil microbiomes experience frequent disturbance from intensive management and may therefore be better equipped to withstand climate warming than microbiomes in undisturbed natural soils. Here we test this by combining a continental-scale warming microcosm experiment across 100 paired agricultural–natural sites with a global meta-analysis and three microbiome manipulation experiments (microbial suspensions, cross-inoculation and synthetic communities). Agricultural soils showed a higher resistance of soil multifunctionality to warming than natural soils, consistent across the meta-analysis. Resistance of microbial community composition was the strongest predictor of functional resistance and was confirmed in artificial soils inoculated with agricultural versus natural microbial suspensions. Introducing soil microbiomes from agricultural ecosystems into previously undisturbed natural soils enhanced functional resistance to warming. Metagenomic analysis revealed that microbial life-history strategies play a crucial role in regulating the resistance of soil microbial community to warming, with communities dominated by stress-tolerant strategies conferring significantly stronger resistance. Our work highlights the potential of microbiome engineering to strengthen ecosystem functioning under climate change.
