Ecosystem Productivity Shapes How Soil Microbes Store or Release Carbon, Challenging Old Assumptions
Soils store more carbon than the atmosphere and vegetation combined, with soil microorganisms playing the main role. As a result, the global soil carbon cycle—by which carbon enters, moves through, and leaves soils worldwide—exerts a significant impact on climate change feedback.
Now an important study led by researchers from the Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences sheds new light on this cycle by overturning assumptions about the relationship between microbial respiration and carbon storage.
The findings, published in Science Advances, offer a new perspective on soil carbon management and climate change projection models.
How microorganisms influence soil carbon
The role of microorganisms in the soil carbon cycle is represented by two important values: the heterotrophic respiration rate (Rh), which measures how much CO2 is respired into the atmosphere as microbes break down plant material; and microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE), which measures how efficiently microorganisms convert absorbed organic carbon into their own biomass instead of releasing it as CO2.