Temperature and CO₂ interactively drive shifts in the compositional and functional structure of peatland protist communities

Microbes affect the global carbon cycle that influences climate change and are in turn influenced by environmental change. Here, we use data from a long-term whole-ecosystem warming experiment at a boreal peatland to answer how temperature and CO₂ jointly influence communities of abundant, diverse, yet poorly understood, non-fungi microbial Eukaryotes (protists). These microbes influence ecosystem function directly through photosynthesis and respiration, and indirectly, through predation on decomposers (bacteria and fungi). Using a combination of high-throughput fluid imaging and 18S amplicon sequencing, we report large climate-induced, community-wide shifts in the community functional composition of these microbes (size, shape, and metabolism) that could alter overall function in peatlands. Importantly, we demonstrate a taxonomic convergence but a functional divergence in response to warming and elevated CO₂ with most environmental responses being contingent on organismal size: warming effects on functional composition are reversed by elevated CO₂ and amplified in larger microbes but not smaller ones. These findings show how the interactive effects of warming and rising CO₂ levels could alter the structure and function of peatland microbial food webs—a fragile ecosystem that stores upwards of 25% of all terrestrial carbon and is increasingly threatened by human exploitation.