Response of microbial biomass and CO2-C loss to wetting patterns are temperature dependent in a semi-arid soil

One of the greatest contemporary challenges in terrestrial ecology is to determine the impact of climate change on the world’s ecosystems. Here we investigated how wetting patterns (frequency and intensity) and nutrient additions altered microbial biomass and CO 2 -C loss from a semi-arid soil. South-western Australia is predicted to experience declining annual rainfall but increased frequency of summer rainfall events when soil is fallow. Agricultural soils (0–10 cm at 10 °C or 25 °C) received the same total amount of water (15 mL over 30 days) applied at different frequency; with either nil or added nitrogen and phosphorus. Smaller more frequent wetting applications resulted in less CO 2 -C loss ( P