Figure 6.

The complexity of proposed climate-warming effects on soil carbon (C) in lowland and montane tropical forests. The thermal adaptation of soil microorganisms and changes in plant productivity, rainfall, and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) will modulate these responses, but the mode of adaptation is uncertain. To understand the impacts of warming in lowland tropical forest, we need in situ experiments to simulate warming. Driving processes are represented by the dashed arrows; fluxes of energy or nutrients are represented by solid arrows (weighted by their relative importance in montane and lowland tropical forests); the boxes are organisms or resource pools. Abbreviations: N, nitrogen; NPP, net primary production; P, phosphorus; SOM, soil organic matter.