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[ID: 508] Microclimate Soil Microbes
PI: Paul Kardol
Forests are vital for human well-being, especially through their role in carbon cycling—a process threatened by climate change. When forests shift from absorbing carbon to releasing it, they worsen global warming and harm biodiversity. However, we still lack a clear understanding of how climate change will affect carbon cycling, largely because research often overlooks the link between large-scale climate (macroclimate) and the local conditions (microclimate) that directly influence plants and soil microbes. This project aims to fill this gap by studying how the disconnect between macroclimate and microclimate impacts carbon cycling and soil microbial activity in different forests, covering a latitude range of 5 degrees (Asa till Svartberget). We will explore how forest structure affects this decoupling and use controlled experiments to simulate climate change scenarios, focusing on the effects of aboveground and belowground microclimates on soil microbes. We will investigate the effect of microclimate on soil-microbial communities by comparing their composition (DNA sequencing) and activity (CO2 respiration) between different macroclimates (Asa, Grimsö, Svartberget) and respective microclimates, as well as observing changes during a controlled warming experiment in the lab.