Droughts affect soil microbial abundance and functions—key parameters of plant–soil carbon (C) allocation dynamics. However, the impact of drought may be modified by the mean climatic conditions to which the soil microbiome has previously been exposed. In a future warmer and drier world, effects of drought may therefore differ from those observed in studies that simulate drought under current climatic conditions. To investigat...

The soil microbial carbon pump (MCP) is increasingly acknowledged as being directly linked to soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation and stability. Given the close coupling of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles and the constraints imposed by their stoichiometry on microbial growth, N addition might affect microbial growth strategies with potential consequences for necromass formation and carbon stability. However, this topic r...

Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) must undertake proper cropland intensification for higher crop yields while minimizing climate impacts. Unfortunately, no studies have simultaneously quantified greenhouse gas (GHG; CO 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 O) emissions and soil organic carbon (SOC) change in SSA croplands, leaving it a blind spot in the accounting of global warming potential (GWP). Here, based on 2‐year field monitoring of soil emissions...

Depolymerization of high‐molecular weight organic nitrogen (N) represents the major bottleneck of soil N cycling and yet is poorly understood compared to the subsequent inorganic N processes. Given the importance of organic N cycling and the rise of global change, we investigated the responses of soil protein depolymerization and microbial amino acid consumption to increased temperature, elevated atmospheric CO 2 , and drought...

Photosynthesis and soil respiration represent the two largest fluxes of CO 2 in terrestrial ecosystems and are tightly linked through belowground carbon (C) allocation. Drought has been suggested to impact the allocation of recently assimilated C to soil respiration; however, it is largely unknown how drought effects are altered by a future warmer climate under elevated atmospheric CO 2 (eT_eCO 2 ). In a multifactor experiment...

Soil microbial physiology controls large fluxes of C to the atmosphere, thus, improving our ability to accurately quantify microbial physiology in soil is essential. However, current methods to determine microbial C metabolism require liquid water addition, which makes it practically impossible to measure microbial physiology in dry soil samples without stimulating microbial growth and respiration (namely, the “Birch effect”)....