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Projections for the northeastern U.S. indicate that mean air temperatures will rise and snowfall will become less frequent, causing more frequent soil freezing. To test fungal responses to these combined chronic and extreme soil temperature changes, we conducted a laboratory-based common garden experiment with soil fungi that had been subjected to different combinations of growing season soil warming, winter soil freeze/thaw cycles, and ambient conditions for four years in the field. We found that fungi originating from field plots experiencing a combination of growing season warming and winter freeze/thaw cycles had inherently lower activity of acid phosphatase, but higher cellulase activity, that could not be reversed in the lab. In addition, fungi quickly adjusted their physiology to freeze/thaw cycles in the laboratory, reducing growth rate and potentially reducing their carbon use efficiency. Our findings suggest that less than four years of new soil temperature conditions in the field can lead to physiological shifts by some soil fungi, as well as irreversible loss or acquisition of extracellular enzyme activity traits by other fungi. These findings could explain field observations of shifting soil carbon and nutrient cycling under simulated climate change.

These data were gathered as part of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study (HBES). The HBES is a collaborative effort at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, which is operated and maintained by the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station.