ArticleNature communications2022
Drivers and trends of global soil microbial carbon over two decades.
Article in Nature communications, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 126 citations in OpenAlex.
- Global Meta-Analysis Integrated with Machine Learning Assesses Context-Dependent Microplastic Effects on Soil Microbial Biomass Carbon and Nitrogen.Environmental science & technology · 2025Pooled it
- Afforestation and reforestation support coupled gains in soil life and carbon storage worldwide.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Global patterns and feasible improvement potential of phosphorus use efficiency in cereal croplands.Nature food · 2026Article
- Microbial Transcriptional and Metabolic Shifts Mediate Rhizosphere Organic Carbon Accumulation in Alpine Grasslands Following Six Years of Continuous Nitrogen Addition.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- Spatio-temporal patterns and environmental controls of soil organic carbon stocks in global tidal wetlands since 2009.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Conservation agriculture buffers persistent carbon loss under warming by microbial adaptation.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Grassland restoration in typical wind-eroded regions effectively increase soil organic carbon.PloS one · 2026Article
- Spatial patterns and future potential of tree species richness and structural diversity in China's forests.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Spatial biogeography of microbes in soils vs. aquatic ecosystems in U.S.'s major natural biomes.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Two decades of improved wetland carbon sequestration in northern mid-to-high latitudes are offset by tropical and southern declines.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Soil microbial decomposition capacity and soil properties under moderate warming in a natural forest in the Asian monsoon region.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2025Article
- Fire-driven disruptions of global soil biochemical relationships.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Continuous watermelon cropping impairs plant growth by modifying soil biochemistry and rhizosphere microbial communities.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Biocontrol Agents Inhibit Banana Fusarium Wilt and Alter the Rooted Soil Bacterial Community in the Field.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Global decline in microbial-derived carbon stocks with climate warming and its future projections.National science review · 2024Article
- Reducing the uncertainty in estimating soil microbial-derived carbon storage.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Soil Microbial Community Structure and Carbon Stocks Following Fertilization with Organic Fertilizers and Biological Inputs.Biology · 2024Article
- Reply to: Field experiments show no consistent reductions in soil microbial carbon in response to warming.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Field experiments show no consistent reductions in soil microbial carbon in response to warming.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Climate and Environmental Variables Drive Stream Biofilm Bacterial and Fungal Diversity on Tropical Mountainsides.Microbial ecology · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Soil microorganisms are central to sustain soil functions and services, like carbon and nutrient cycling. Currently, we only have a limited understanding of the spatial-temporal dynamics of soil microorganisms, restricting our ability to assess long-term effects of climate and land-cover change on microbial roles in soil biogeochemistry. This study assesses the temporal trends in soil microbial biomass carbon and identifies the main drivers of biomass change regionally and globally to detect the areas sensitive to these environmental factors. Here, we combined a global soil microbial biomass carbon data set, random forest modelling, and environmental layers to predict spatial-temporal dynamics of microbial biomass carbon stocks from 1992 to 2013. Soil microbial biomass carbon stocks decreased globally by 3.4 ± 3.0% (mean ± 95% CI) between 1992 and 2013 for the predictable regions, equivalent to 149 Mt being lost over the period, or ~1‰ of soil C. Northern areas with high soil microbial carbon stocks experienced the strongest decrease, mostly driven by increasing temperatures. In contrast, land-cover change was a weaker global driver of change in microbial carbon, but had, in some cases, important regional effects.
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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.