Researchers studied how soil respiration in subtropical forests responds to warming. They found that warming increased overall soil respiration and heterotrophic respiration, but not autotrophic respiration. This suggests that soil respiration driven by organic matter decomposition may be more sensitive to climate warming than respiration from plant roots. The study also showed that warming led to changes in soil microbial communities. These findings indicate that future climate warming could result in increased carbon loss from soil in subtropical forests.