We currently lack a predictive understanding of how soil archaeal communities may respond to climate change, particularly in Alpine areas where warming is far exceeding the global average. Here, we characterized the abundance, structure, and function of total (by metagenomics) and active soil archaea (by metatranscriptomics) after 5-year experimental field warming (+1°C) in Italian Alpine grasslands and snowbeds. Our multi-omics approach unveiled an increasing abundance of Archaea during warming in snowbeds, which was negatively correlated with the abundance of fungi (by qPCR) and micronutrients (Ca and Mg), but positively correlated with soil water content. In the snowbeds transcripts, warming resulted in the enrichment of abundances of transcription and nucleotide biosynthesis. Our study provides novel insights into possible changes in soil Archaea composition and function in the climate change scenario.

Biological Institute of São Paulo Vila Mariana São Paulo Brazil

Department of Ecological and Biological Sciences University of Tuscia Largo dell'Università Viterbo Italy

Department of Science and High Technology Insubria University Como CO Italy

Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Praha Czech Republic

Institute of Polar Sciences National Research Council of Italy Messina Italy

Norwegian College of Fishery Science UiT the Arctic University of Norway Tromsø Norway

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