Temperatures beyond the community optimum promote dominance of heat-adapted, fast-growing and stress resistant bacteria

Alpine soils are warming strongly, leading to profound alterations in carbon cycling and greenhouse gas budgets, mediated via the soil microbiome. To explore microbial responses to global warming, we linked the temperature dependency of bacterial growth with alterations in bacterial community structures and the identification of temperature sensitive bacteria incubating eight alpine soils across a range of temperatures. Prokaryotic diversity and community structures in response to temperature were assessed by 16S rRNA gene and transcript sequencing.