However, no significant change was shown in the abundance of genes involved in recalcitrant C (e.g., lignin) degradation. Therefore, our results indicate that eCO2 significantly affected metabolic potentials for C fixation and degradation. However, it appears that such changes have little effect on soil C storage [25], probably due to accelerated degradation of increased C inputs, which is consistent with increased soil CO2 flux over the course of the experiment. Another important question is Selleckchem Inhibitor Library whether eCO2 affects soil N cycling processes and/or

soil N dynamics. Our previous study has Belnacasan supplier showed that soil N supply is probably an important constraint on global terrestrial productivity in response to eCO2[32]. When N is limiting, decomposers may respond to increased C inputs by decomposing soil organic matter to gain access to N and constrain the plant biomass accumulation at eCO2[42, 43]. In this study, our GeoChip analysis showed that the abundance of nifH genes significantly increased at eCO2. Presumably, an increase

in N2 fixation under eCO2 may lead to enhanced CO2 fertilization of plant biomass production by alleviating some of the N constraints on plant response to eCO2. In the plots examined in the present Selumetinib mw study, no N fertilizer was supplemented, but significant increases were observed in the total plant biomass and aboveground plant biomass, especially the biomass of legume plant species Lupinus perennis, which may be associated with significant increases of N2 fixers in soil under eCO2 measured by the abundance of nifH genes in this study. At eCO2, if the increased nifH abundance is interpreted as potential increase of soil microbial N2 fixation, such increase could supplement N nutrients for the plant growth to eliminate the N limitation constraint. In addition, the abundance of Rucaparib nirS genes significantly increased at eCO2 while all others genes involved in denitrification

remained unaffected. The results suggest that eCO2 could significantly impact microbial N2 fixation and denitrification, and probably enhance the production of the greenhouse gas N2O. However, it appears that no significant changes were observed in soil N dynamics under eCO2, which may be largely due to the large N pool size in soil. It is largely unknown whether or how eCO2 and eCO2-induced effects, such as increased C inputs into soil and changes in soil properties, shape soil microbial community structure. The direct effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration on soil microbial communities were expected to be negligible compared to potential indirect effects such as increased plant C inputs to soil, since the CO2 concentrations in the pore space of soil generally is much higher than those in the atmosphere even under ambient CO2 concentrations [5]. However, this has not been well studied.