Responses of two nonlinear microbial models to warming or increased carbon input

A number of nonlinear microbial models of soil carbon decomposition have been developed. Some of them have been applied globally but have yet to be shown to realistically represent soil carbon dynamics in the field. Therefore a thorough analysis of their key differences will be very useful for the future development of these models. Here we compare two nonlinear microbial models of soil carbon decomposition: one is based on reverse Michaelis-Menten kinetics (model A) and the other on regular Michaelis-Menten kinetics (model B). Using a combination of analytic solutions and numerical simulations, we find that the oscillatory responses of carbon pools model A to a small perturbation in the initial pool sizes have a higher frequency and damps faster than model B. In response to soil warming, soil carbon always decreases in model A; but likely decreases in cool regions and increases in warm regions in model B. Maximum CO₂ efflux from soil carbon decomposition (F_max) after an increased carbon addition decreases with an increase in soil temperature in both models, and the sensitivity of F_max to the amount of carbon input increases with soil temperature in model A; but decreases monotonically with an increase in soil temperature in model B. These differences in the responses to soil warming and carbon input between the two nonlinear models can be used to differentiate which model is more realistic with field or laboratory experiments. This will lead to a better understanding of the significance of soil microbial processes in the responses of soil carbon to future climate change at regional or global scales.