Understanding the microbial response to global warming may contribute to predicting terrestrial ecosystem feedbacks in a warmer climate. Therefore, an experimental nursery site was established with Pinus densiflora at Korea University to study soil microorganism responses to air temperature elevation of 3℃ with precipitation manipulation of decrease, and increase. Microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen (MBC and MBN) were monitored. Microbial activity was estimated by microbial metabolic potential. And microbial community composition was assessed by High-throughput sequencing analysis. The results showed that warming did not have a significant effect on MBC and MBN (P>0.05), but precipitation manipulations reduced MBC and MBN in warming and unwarmed control plots (P<0.05). Warming significantly enhanced microbial metabolic potential in precipitation decrease, increase and control plots (P<0.05). In addition, both warming and precipitation manipulations strongly increased the microbial community richness (P<0.01). In summary, warming had no effect on soil microbial biomass, but warming and precipitation manipulations might cause a shift in soil microbial activity and community composition.

*Supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2013R1A1A2012242)