Soil bacterial community response to experimental warming in an alpine meadow of Western Himalaya

High altitude mountain ecosystems are predicted to experience more temperature increase than global average surface temperature rise at the end of 2100. Soil bacterial communities can provide feedback to climate warming due to their critical role in biogeochemical cycles that result in the emission of substantial CO2 and other greenhouse gases. However, relatively little is known about the response of high-altitude soil bacterial communities to climate warming. Therefore, we conducted a warming experiment using an open-top chamber (OTC) over two years in an alpine meadow (4000 m) in the western Himalaya to study the impacts of approximately 1.5 degree centigrade temperature increase on bacterial communities and their functional traits associated with biogeochemical cycles.