Lower N emissions were mechanistically linked to lower microbial processing of N as soil moisture decreased under warming. This shows that warming-induced losses in soil moisture can offset expected temperature effects on soil N cycling as the planet warms.

We show that opposite to projections based exclusively on temperature, soil N emissions were suppressed under warming, an observation shared across other warming experiments receiving < 1,000 mm/y precipitation—but not by those receiving > 1,000 mm/y where warming increased N emissions.

And with @alexkrichels.bsky.social now on Bluesky!

with @drylandfire.bsky.social @m-j-spasojevic.bsky.social @globalchangebio.bsky.social @agu.org

Inducing severe water limitation may push drylands across “aridity tipping points” beyond which AOB are not stimulated by excess soil N availability, but AOA contributions to NO emissions persist. This caused nitrate to accumulate in soils, leading to the emission of N2O upon rewetting.

We found that both increasing and decreasing summer precipitation can favor AOB-derived NO emissions when soils wet up at the end of the summer, a period characterized by N loss across drylands.