Our findings indicate the importance of paleoclimatic information to improve quantitative predictions of global soil C stocks.
Despite having key functions in terrestrial ecosystems, information on the dominant soil fungi and their ecological preferences at the global scale is lacking. To fill this knowledge gap, we surveyed 235 soils from across the globe. Our findings indicate that 83 phylotypes (<0.1% of the retrieved fungi), mostly belonging to wind dispersed, generalist Ascomycota, dominate soils globally. We identify patterns and ecological drivers of dominant soil fungal taxa occurrence, and present a map of their distribution in soils worldwide. Whole-genome comparisons with less dominant, generalist fungi point at a significantly higher number of genes related to stress-tolerance and resource uptake in the dominant fungi, suggesting that they might be better in colonising a wide range of environments. Our findings constitute a major advance in our understanding of the ecology of fungi, and have implications for the development of strategies to preserve them and the ecosystem functions they provide.Identifying the global drivers of soil priming is essential to understanding C cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. We conducted a survey of soils across 86 globally-distributed locations, spanning a wide range of climates, biotic communities, and soil conditions, and evaluated the apparent soil priming effect using13C-glucose labeling. Here we show that the magnitude of the positive apparent priming effect (increase in CO2release through accelerated microbial biomass turnover) was negatively associated with SOC content and microbial respiration rates. Our statistical modeling suggests that apparent priming effects tend to be negative in more mesic sites associated with higher SOC contents. In contrast, a single-input of labile C causes positive apparent priming effects in more arid locations with low SOC contents. Our results provide solid evidence that SOC content plays a critical role in regulating apparent priming effects, with important implications for the improvement of C cycling models under global change scenarios.Organic carbon (OC) and nitrogen (N) storage in soil plays an important role in global climate change and in maintaining food security. Pollution of soil with heavy metals has occurred in many parts of the world, but their effects on soil OC and N have not been well addressed. Relevant data were extracted from peer\uffe2\uff80\uff90reviewed journal papers and analysed by a meta\uffe2\uff80\uff90analysis to determine how long\uffe2\uff80\uff90term heavy metal pollution affected soil OC and N status. Plant biomass decreased significantly because heavy metals in soil decreased soil OC and N concentrations by 5.0 and 17.9%, respectively, but increased the C/N ratio by 5.1%. The largest reductions in soil OC and N concentrations were in soil more strongly polluted by metals. The changes in soil OC and N with metal pollution varied with climatic conditions. More substantial decreases in OC and N concentrations were likely to occur in polluted soil with large background contents of OC and low pH. Overall, heavy metals were linked to greater reductions in soil OC and N concentrations in natural ecosystems than in agro\uffe2\uff80\uff90ecosystems. These results provided a quantitative evaluation of the effects of heavy metal pollution on the decrease in soil C and N concentrations and, therefore, on global climate change. Further consideration should be given to changes in the cycling of C and N in soil polluted with metals in natural and agro\uffe2\uff80\uff90ecosystems.
", "keywords": ["2. Zero hunger", "anzsrc-for: 0503 Soil Sciences", "550", "anzsrc-for: 4105 Pollution and Contamination", "anzsrc-for: 0703 Crop and Pasture Production", "anzsrc-for: 4106 Soil sciences", "04 agricultural and veterinary sciences", "41 Environmental Sciences", "15. Life on land", "01 natural sciences", "6. Clean water", "anzsrc-for: 41 Environmental Sciences", "anzsrc-for: 0607 Plant Biology", "4105 Pollution and Contamination", "13. Climate action", "0401 agriculture", " forestry", " and fisheries", "0105 earth and related environmental sciences"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.12327"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/European%20Journal%20of%20Soil%20Science", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1111/ejss.12327", "name": "item", "description": "10.1111/ejss.12327", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1111/ejss.12327"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2016-03-01T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.1126/sciadv.1602008", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-06-24T16:19:48Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2017-04-14", "title": "Climate legacies drive global soil carbon stocks in terrestrial ecosystems", "description": "Our findings indicate the importance of paleoclimatic information to improve quantitative predictions of global soil C stocks.
We discuss possible mechanisms to explain paleoclimate as a predictor of the current distribution of global soil C content.
We discuss possible mechanisms to explain paleoclimate as a predictor of the current distribution of global soil C content.
Our findings indicate the importance of paleoclimatic information to improve quantitative predictions of global soil C stocks.
Despite having key functions in terrestrial ecosystems, information on the dominant soil fungi and their ecological preferences at the global scale is lacking. To fill this knowledge gap, we surveyed 235 soils from across the globe. Our findings indicate that 83 phylotypes (<0.1% of the retrieved fungi), mostly belonging to wind dispersed, generalist Ascomycota, dominate soils globally. We identify patterns and ecological drivers of dominant soil fungal taxa occurrence, and present a map of their distribution in soils worldwide. Whole-genome comparisons with less dominant, generalist fungi point at a significantly higher number of genes related to stress-tolerance and resource uptake in the dominant fungi, suggesting that they might be better in colonising a wide range of environments. Our findings constitute a major advance in our understanding of the ecology of fungi, and have implications for the development of strategies to preserve them and the ecosystem functions they provide.Identifying the global drivers of soil priming is essential to understanding C cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. We conducted a survey of soils across 86 globally-distributed locations, spanning a wide range of climates, biotic communities, and soil conditions, and evaluated the apparent soil priming effect using13C-glucose labeling. Here we show that the magnitude of the positive apparent priming effect (increase in CO2release through accelerated microbial biomass turnover) was negatively associated with SOC content and microbial respiration rates. Our statistical modeling suggests that apparent priming effects tend to be negative in more mesic sites associated with higher SOC contents. In contrast, a single-input of labile C causes positive apparent priming effects in more arid locations with low SOC contents. Our results provide solid evidence that SOC content plays a critical role in regulating apparent priming effects, with important implications for the improvement of C cycling models under global change scenarios.