Aggregate fractions shaped molecular composition change of soil organic matter in a rice paddy under elevated CO2 and air warming

To understand how climate change impacts soil fertility and ecosystem functioning, it is necessary to explore how different pools of soil organic matter (SOM) at aggregate scale are functionally affected in their molecular composition. Here, we collected rhizospheric soil at rice harvest from a paddy field in which a simulated climate change experiment was conducted for 6 years, including CO2 enrichment up to 500 μmol mol−1 (CE), air warming by 2 °C (WA), combination of CO2 enrichment and air warming (CW), and the ambient environment as control. The soil samples were separated in three aggregate fractions (macroaggregates, 2000-250 μm; microaggregates, 250-53 μm; clay & silt, <53 μm) by wet sieving procedure, their molecular composition was detected by off-line pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS), and the analysis of microbial communities was conducted by phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs). The mass proportion of macroaggregates increased by 32%, 55%, and 109%, while that of microaggregates decreased by 30%, 14% and 54%, compared to control under CE, WA, and CW treatments, respectively. The mass proportion of macroaggregates was significantly positively correlated with root biomass, while it was significantly negatively correlated in microaggregates, which suggested that the formation of macroaggregates was derived from microaggregates due to root entanglement, and/or mucilage. The molecular composition of SOM depleted in phenolic compounds (phenols and phenolic compounds) while accumulated in lipids (alcohols, alkanes/alkenes/alkynes and fatty acids) with decreasing aggregate size. The increased yields of lipids and phenolic compounds in macro-and microaggregates under CE treatment were likely related to the enhanced root litter, whereas they were reduced under WA treatment due to increase of fungal dominance. A lesser increment of those compounds was noticed under CW treatment and it was attributed to the antagonistic effect, in which the increment effect of CO2 elevation can be counteracted by warming. The molecular composition hardly changed in clay & silt fraction under all climatic treatments, thus suggesting that the effect of elevated CO2 and/or warming on SOM molecular composition faded with decreasing aggregate size. Shared by control and a climatic treatment, changes of common molecules in the whole soils depended on their distribution among aggregates. Moreover, the differences in common molecules distribution induced by climatic treatments were significantly correlated to those in mass proportion of aggregates. Considering that common molecules dominated the molecular abundance across all aggregate fractions, our findings indicate that the alteration of SOM molecular composition in the whole soils under climatic treatments appears to be modified by the variation in mass proportion of aggregates.