High-altitude terrestrial ecosystems are susceptible to global warming, notably increasing average temperatures and the increased frequency of extreme heatwaves during summer. In Alpine environments, high temperatures impact soil microbial communities through thermal stress and indirectly by accelerating nutrient release from frozen material and organic matter turnover (Donhauser et al., 2021). As climate change accelerates, it is critical to understand the consequences of high temperatures on the microorganisms and their traits that underpin fundamental ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling and subsequent nutrient acquisition by plants.
Phosphorus (P) is a globally important and often limiting nutrient for soils and plants, and was recently reported to be the most globally widespread limitation for soil microorganisms (Cui et al., 2025). While the responses of microbial-mediated carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling to warming have been extensively investigated, P has been largely overlooked.