Effect of elevated CO2 on rhizosphere carbon flow and soil microbial processes

Abstract

Direct effects of increased above‐ground CO2 concentration on soil microbial processes are unlikely, due to the high pCO2 of the soil atmosphere in most terrestrial ecosystems. However, below‐ ground microbial processes are likely to be affected through altered plant inputs at elevated CO2. A major component of plant input is derived from litter fall and root turnover. Inputs also derive from rhizodeposition (loss of C‐compounds from active root systems) which may account for up to 40% of photoassimilate. This input fuels the activity of complex microbial communities around roots. These communities are centrally important not only to plant–microbe interactions and consequent effects on plant growth, but also, through their high relative activity and abundance, to microbially mediated processes in soil generally. This review focuses on approaches to measure C‐flow from roots, in particular, as affected by increased atmospheric CO2 concentration. The available evidence for impacts on microbial communities inhabiting this niche, which constitutes an interface for possible perturbations on terrestrial ecosystems through the influence of environmental change, will also be discussed. While methodologies for measuring effects of increased CO2 concentration on plant growth, physiology and C‐partitioning are abundant and widely reported, there is relatively little information on plant‐mediated effects on soil microbial communities and processes. Importantly, many studies have also neglected to recognize that any secondary effects on microbial communities may have profound effects on plant parameters measured in relation to environmental change. We critically review approaches which have been used to measure rhizodeposition under conditions of increased atmospheric CO2 concentration, and then consider evidence for changes in microbial communities and processes, and the methodologies which have been recently developed, and are appropriate to study such changes.