Treeline soil warming does not affect soil methane fluxes and the spatial micro-distribution of methanotrophic bacteria

• Soil CH4 fluxes were studied in a six-year field study at the Alpine treeline.
• We tested potentially opposing effects via soil drying or increased N mineralization.
• 14C and micro-autoradiography used to analyze distribution of active methanotrophs.
• CH4 fluxes unchanged, and marginal vertical shift in methanotrophic activity.
• Absence of effects likely because the changes in hypothesized drivers small.

The impact of a warmer climate on CH4 fluxes from soils is highly uncertain, because soil warming may affect methanotrophic bacteria in two opposed ways: CH4 assimilation in soils might be increased by the decreasing soil moisture often associated with soil warming. In contrast, CH4 oxidation might be suppressed by higher NH4+ concentrations in warmed soils resulting from an accelerated nitrogen mineralization. We investigated effects of soil warming on soil-atmosphere CH4 fluxes in the last two years of a six-year long field experiment at a Swiss alpine treeline. Specifically, we measured CH4 fluxes using static chambers, and characterized N cycling by quantifying soil N2O emissions and NH4+ and NO3− concentrations. We further labeled intact soil cores with C14H4 and traced the labeled bacteria using an auto-radiographic technique to study the potential warming-related changes in the micro-distribution of methanotrophic bacteria within the soils. Our results did not show a significant effect of soil warming on net CH4 fluxes after five and six years of soil warming. In general, soils were a net sink for CH4 but CH4 emissions were observed occasionally. One reason for the unaltered CH4 fluxes might be the negligible warming effects on soil water contents in the treeline environment with frequent rainfalls. In the warmed soils, soil moisture was lower in the litter layer, but not deeper in the soils. Therefore, soil warming did not affect gas transport rates into deeper soil layers where methanotrophic bacteria were located. Another reason might be the general absence of substantial warming effects on mineral N, with NH4+ concentrations being marginally significantly higher in warmed soils only in ion exchange resin bags (P < 0.1) but not in soil extracts. Auto-radiographic image analysis of soil cores revealed an overall heterogeneous 14C distribution and a warming-induced shift of methanotrophic bacteria toward the soil surface. The absence of responses of CH4 fluxes to warming in this alpine treeline ecosystem is likely related to the rather minimal changes in the putative drivers soil moisture and NH4+ concentration.