Theory 65/Field programme/Soil warming
Warming Lowers Carbon Efficiency
The claim
Long-term soil warming lowers microbial carbon-use efficiency, so warmed soils lose carbon faster than their respiration increase alone implies.
01Mechanism
Warmer microbes allocate more carbon to maintenance and less to growth, reducing the fraction retained.
02Prediction
Efficiency should decline with warming duration.
03Refutation
Efficiency constant under warming would remove the mechanism.