Temperature sensitivity of decomposition decreases with increasing soil organic matter stability

[Display omitted] •We measured the temperature sensitivity of SOM decomposition in the field.•We used short and long-term root exclusion plots with SOM of increasing stability.•Temperature sensitivity decreased with increasing stability at daily and seasonal timescales.•Temperature sensitivity is constrained by SOM physicochemical protection in the field. Evaluation of the temperature sensitivity of soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition is critical for forecasting whether soils in a warming world will lose or gain carbon and, therefore, accelerate or mitigate climate warming. It is usually described, using Arrhenius kinetics, as increasing with the stability of the substrate in laboratory conditions, where substrate availability is non-limiting and where chemical recalcitrance, therefore, predominantly regulates stability. However, conditions of non-limiting subtrate availability are rare in the undisturbed soil, where physicochemical protection of substrates may control their stability. The aim of this study was to assess the temperature sensitivity of decomposition of SOM with contrasting stability in the field. Our conceptual approach was based on in situ measurements of soil CO2 efflux at a range of temperatures from root exclusion plots of increasing age (1 month and three decades) and, therefore, with SOM of increasing stability. From a set of short-term measurements in spring, using diurnal temperature variation, the relative temperature sensitivity of SOM decomposition decreased significantly (p