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Global Biogeography of Fungal and Bacterial Biomass Carbon in Topsoil
  • +8
  • Liyuan He,
  • Jorge Rodrigues,
  • Nadejda Soudzilovskaia,
  • Milagros Barceló,
  • Pal Axel Olsson,
  • Changchun Song,
  • Leho Tedersoo,
  • Fenghui Yuan,
  • Fengming Yuan,
  • David Lipson,
  • Xiaofeng Xu
Liyuan He
San Diego State University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Jorge Rodrigues
University of California Davis
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Nadejda Soudzilovskaia
Leiden University
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Milagros Barceló
Universiteit Leiden Centrum voor Milieukunde
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Pal Axel Olsson
Lund University
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Changchun Song
Chinese Academy of Sciences Changchun Branch
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Leho Tedersoo
University of Tartu
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Fenghui Yuan
San Diego State University
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Fengming Yuan
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
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David Lipson
San Diego State University
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Xiaofeng Xu
San Diego State University
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Abstract

We synthesized 1323 combinations of phospholipid fatty acid-derived fungal biomass C (FBC), bacterial biomass C (BBC), and fungi:bacteria (F:B) ratio in topsoil, spanning 11 major biomes. We found that the FBC, BBC, and F:B ratio display clear biogeographic patterns along latitude and environmental gradients including mean annual temperature, mean annual precipitation, net primary productivity, root C density, soil temperature, soil moisture, and edaphic properties. At the biome level, the highest FBC and BBC densities are observed in tundra, at 3684 (95% confidence interval: 1678~8084) mg kg-1 and 428 (237~774) mg kg-1, respectively. The lowest FBC and BBC densities were found in deserts, at 16.92 (14.4~19.89) mg kg-1 and 6.83 (6.1~7.65) mg kg-1, respectively. While the F:B ratio ranges from 1.8 (1.6~2.1) in savanna to 8.6 (6.7~11.0) in tundra. Combining an empirical model of F:B ratio with the global dataset of soil microbial biomass C, we then produced global maps for FBC and BBC in 0-30 cm topsoil. Global stock of C was estimated to be 12.6 (6.6~16.4) Pg C in FBC and 4.3 (0.5~10.3) Pg C in BBC in topsoil. This work creates a benchmark for explicit use of microbial data in modelling biosphere-atmosphere feedbacks in a changing environment.