SynthesisNature communications2020
The influence of soil age on ecosystem structure and function across biomes.
Synthesis in Nature communications, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Microbial Functional Genes Help Explain Soil Carbon Sensitivity to Temperature Across Global Biomes.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Viral modulation of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria drives organic carbon sink formation during primary succession in deglaciating ecosystems.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Aridity-related differences in soil elemental ratios reshape microbial functional traits across global biomes.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Functional restructuring of the global soil microbiome under multiple stressors.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Energy availability outperforms topographic heterogeneity in predicting global patterns of mountain endemic plant richness.iScience · 2026Article
- Pedology and Plant Provenance Can Improve Species Distribution Predictions of Australian Native Flora: A Calibrated and Validated Modeling Exercise on 5033 Species.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Postglacial bioweathering, soil nutrient cycling, and podzolization from palaeometagenomics of plants, fungi, and bacteria.Science advances · 2025Article
- Practical applications of soil microbiota to improve ecosystem restoration: current knowledge and future directions.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Geologically younger ecosystems are more dependent on soil biodiversity for supporting function.Nature communications · 2024Article
- The neglected role of micronutrients in predicting soil microbial structure.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2022Article
- Phylotype diversity within soil fungal functional groups drives ecosystem stability.Nature ecology & evolution · 2022Article
- The role of soils in habitat creation, maintenance and restoration.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
- The multidimensionality of soil macroecology.Global ecology and biogeography : a journal of macroecology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
30 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The importance of soil age as an ecosystem driver across biomes remains largely unresolved. By combining a cross-biome global field survey, including data for 32 soil, plant, and microbial properties in 16 soil chronosequences, with a global meta-analysis, we show that soil age is a significant ecosystem driver, but only accounts for a relatively small proportion of the cross-biome variation in multiple ecosystem properties. Parent material, climate, vegetation and topography predict, collectively, 24 times more variation in ecosystem properties than soil age alone. Soil age is an important local-scale ecosystem driver; however, environmental context, rather than soil age, determines the rates and trajectories of ecosystem development in structure and function across biomes. Our work provides insights into the natural history of terrestrial ecosystems. We propose that, regardless of soil age, changes in the environmental context, such as those associated with global climatic and land-use changes, will have important long-term impacts on the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems across biomes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.