A meta-analysis of the effects of experimental warming on soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics on the Tibetan Plateau

• Warming increased soil microbial biomass.
• Soil microbial biomass was more responsive to warming in colder environment.
• Grasslands showed stronger response of soil microbial biomass than forests.

Alpine ecosystems at high altitudes and latitudes are notably sensitive to climatic warming and the Tibetan Plateau is a widely distributed alpine ecosystem. The magnitude of climatic warming on the Tibetan Plateau is expected to be considerably greater than the global average. However, a synthesis of the experimental warming soil carbon and nitrogen data is still lacking and whether forest soils are more sensitive to warming than grassland soils remains unclear. In this study, we used a meta-analysis approach to synthesise 196 observations from 25 published studies on the Tibetan Plateau. Warming significantly increased microbial biomass carbon (MBC) by 14.3% (95% CI: 2.9–24.6%), microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) by 20.1% (95% CI: 2.0–45.1%), net nitrogen mineralization by 49.2% (95% CI: 38.1–62.3%) and net nitrification by 56.0% (95% CI: 51.4–66.1%), but did not significantly affect soil carbon (95% CI: −13.9 to 2.7%) or nitrogen (95% CI: −12.4 to 2.6%). The mean annual air temperature was negatively correlated with the warming effects on MBC and MBN. Grasslands exhibited significant MBC and MBN responses to warming. Specifically, soil microbial biomass was more responsive to warming in colder environments. Moreover, forest soils are not always more sensitive to warming than grassland soils as previous studies have suggested. These findings indicate that clarifying the effect of warming on alpine soils need consider ecosystem types and their local climate.