Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-16-2025
Abstract
Tropical forests are a dominant regulator of the global carbon cycle, exchanging more carbon dioxide with the atmosphere than any other terrestrial biome. Climate models predict unprecedented climatic warming in tropical regions in the coming decades; however, in situ field warming studies are severely lacking in tropical forests. Here we present results from an in situ warming experiment in Puerto Rico, where soil respiration responses to +4 oC warming were assessed half-hourly for a year. Soil respiration rates were 42-204% higher in warmed relative to ambient plots, representing some of the highest soil respiration rates reported for any terrestrial ecosystem. While respiration rates were significantly higher in the warmed plots, the temperature sensitivity (Q10) was 71.7% lower, pointing to a mechanistic shift. Even with reduced Q10, if observed soil respiration rates persist in a warmer world, the feedback to future climate could be considerably greater than previously predicted or observed.
Recommended Citation
Wood, T.E., Tucker, C., Alonso-Rodríguez, A.M. et al. Warming induces unexpectedly high soil respiration in a wet tropical forest. Nat Commun 16, 8222 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62065-6
Supplementary Information
41467_2025_62065_MOESM2_ESM.pdf (838 kB)
Peer Review file
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The authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
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Climate Commons, Environmental Health and Protection Commons, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Commons, Environmental Monitoring Commons, Forest Biology Commons, Soil Science Commons
Comments
This article was originally published in Nature Communications, volume 16, in 2025. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62065-6