Higher temperature sensitivity of forest soil methane oxidation in colder climates.

Forest soils, serving as an important sink for atmospheric methane (CH), modulate the global CH budget. However, the direction and magnitude of the forest soil CH sink under warming remain uncertain, partly because the temperature response of microbial CH oxidation varies substantially across geographical scales. Here, we reveal the spatial variation in the response of forest soil microbial CH oxidation to warming, along with the driving factors, across 84 sites spanning a broad latitudinal gradient in eastern China. Our results show that the temperature sensitivity of soil microbial CH oxidation significantly declines with increasing site mean annual temperature, with a range of 0.03 to 0.77 μg CH g soil d °C. Moreover, soil resources and type II methanotrophs play crucial roles in shaping the temperature sensitivity of soil microbial CH oxidation. Our findings highlight the importance of incorporating climate, soil resources, and methanotroph groups into biogeochemical models to more realistically predict forest soil CH sink under warming.