DISCUSSION
Our general analysis of the ecosystem CDMZ model has shown that the non-evolutionary response of equilibrium SOC to warming always involves soil carbon loss and may only vary in amplitude (Fig. 1). In contrast, the evolutionary adaptive response of microbial exoenzyme allocation, which is shaped by an interaction among the non-linear temperature dependences of microbial traits, can drive negative as well as positive responses of equilibrium SOC to warming. The size of evolutionary effects is most sensitive to MGE, microbial mortality, activation energy of uptake maximal rate, competition asymmetry, initial temperature (Fig. 2), and to the traits’ temperature sensitivity (Fig. 3). By specifying the model for five contrasting sites for which exoenzyme kinetics data are available (German et al.2012), we find evolutionary aggravation of soil carbon loss to be the most likely outcome, with a strong latitudinal pattern, from small evolutionary effects at low latitude to large evolutionary effects at high latitudes (Fig. 4). Strong temperature-dependence of microbial mortality, however, would dramatically change the evolutionary pattern, possibly causing an attenuation of soil carbon loss or even carbon sequestration in response to warming.