Latitudinal shifts of soil microbial biomass seasonality

Fazhu Zhao, Liyuan He, Ben Bond-Lamberty, Ivan A. Janssens, Jieying Wang, Guowei Pang, Yuwei Wu, Xiaofeng Xu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Soil microbes ultimately drive the mineralization of soil organic carbon and thus ecosystem functions. We compiled a dataset of the seasonality of microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and developed a semi-mechanistic model to map monthly MBC across the globe. MBC exhibits an equatorially symmetric seasonality between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. In the Northern Hemisphere, MBC peaks in autumn and is minimal in spring at low latitudes (<25N), peaks in the spring and is minimal in autumn at mid-latitudes (25N to 50N), while peaks in autumn and is minimal in spring at high latitudes (>50N). This latitudinal shift of MBC seasonality is attributed to an interaction of soil temperature, soil moisture, and substrate availability. The MBC seasonality is inconsistent with patterns of heterotrophic respiration, indicating that MBC as a proxy for microbial activity is inappropriate at this resolution. This study highlights the need to explicitly represent microbial physiology in microbial models. The interactive controls of environments and substrate on microbial seasonality provide insights for better representing microbial mechanisms in simulating ecosystem functions at the seasonal scale.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberpgac254
JournalPNAS Nexus
Volume1
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 1 2022

Keywords

  • heterotrophic respiration
  • latitude
  • seasonality
  • soil microbial biomass

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