Impact of Climate Change on Soil Microbial Community

Abstract

As climate changes endlessly, it becomes more important to understand possible reactions from soils to the climate system. It is a known fact that microorganisms, which are associated with plant, may stimulate plant growth and enhance resistance to disease and abiotic stresses. The effects of climate change factors, such as elevated CO2, drought, and temperature on beneficial plant–microorganism interactions are increasingly being explored. Organisms live in concert with thousands of other species, such as some beneficial and pathogenic species which have little to no effect on complex communities. Since natural communities are composed of organisms with very different life history traits and dispersal ability, it is unlikely that all of the microbial community will respond to climatic change factors in a similar way. Among the different factors related to climate change, elevated CO2 had a positive influence on the abundance of arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal fungi, whereas the effects on plant-growth-promoting bacteria and endophytic fungi were more variable. The rise in temperature effects on beneficial plant-associated microorganisms were more variable, positive, neutral, and negative, which were equally common and varied considerably with the temperature range. Likewise, plant-growth-promoting microorganisms (i.e., bacteria and fungi) positively affected plants subjected to drought stress. In this chapter, we explore how climatic change affects soil microbes and plant-associated microorganisms.