Soil and Microbial Controls Jointly Regulate Elevational Patterns of Free-Living Nitrogen Fixation Rate and Its...

Free-living nitrogen fixation (FLNF), like any enzyme-mediated process, is inherently temperature dependent. As FLNF contributes nearly half of global biological nitrogen fixation in natural ecosystems, its response to warming is crucial for predicting how ecosystems will cope with nutrient limitations under climate warming. However, current model studies on climate change often rely on simplified representations of biological nitrogen fixation based on empirical proxies, overlooking microbial thermal acclimation and community shifts across climate gradients. To address this gap, we quantified FLNF rates and their temperature sensitivity (Q₁₀) along a 1500 m elevational gradient in the eastern Himalayas to evaluate how climate, soil properties and diazotrophic (nitrogen-fixing) microbial communities jointly regulate FLNF. Our results showed that soil FLNF rates at site-specific MAT exhibited a unimodal pattern, peaking at mid-elevations, rather than following the expected monotonic increase with temperature. This pattern was jointly regulated by soil nutrient conditions and shifts in diazotrophic community composition. In contrast, the Q₁₀ of soil FLNF rates increased with the elevation, being more than twofold higher at the coldest sites. This pattern was primarily driven by elevation-induced shifts in diazotrophic community composition, with Q₁₀ closely associated with community structure and positively related to the relative abundance of Thermodesulfobacteriota. Together, these findings reveal a dual regulatory mechanism: soil nutrient availability constrains the baseline of FLNF rates both directly and indirectly via its effects on diazotrophic community composition, whereas community composition predominantly governs the magnitude of temperature sensitivity. The higher Q₁₀ in colder zones also suggests that warming may have a more profound impact on N inputs in nutrient-limited high-elevation and high-latitude ecosystems, although this effect is likely contingent on soil resource availability. We emphasize the importance of incorporating diazotrophic community structure and thermal traits into global biogeochemical models to improve predictions of future nitrogen budgets.