Journal Article
Aboveground Productivity Shapes the Active Soil Microbiome Across China
Jieying Wang; Fazhu Zhao; Liyuan He; Xiaofeng Xu; Zhenghu Zhou; Chengjie Ren; Guiyao Zhou; Yaoxin Guo; Jun Wang; Sha Zhou; Manuel Delgado‐Baquerizo
Global Change Biology · Vol. 31, Issue 9 · 2025
Abstract
Soil microbes are the planet's most abundant, diverse, and functionally vital organisms, yet only a small portion of these microbes actively drive soil processes. While resource availability is known to influence microbial physiological traits under multiple soil processes, how aboveground resource input structures the spatial distribution of the soil active microbiome remains virtually unknown. Here, we report the results from a continental standardized soil sampling at 601 sites across major biomes in China. We measured the proportion of the active microbiome (SAM%) using 5‐cyano‐2,3‐ditolyl tetrazolium chloride (CTC) staining by flow cytometry and simultaneously evaluated their main environmental drivers. On average, 2%), while cropland harbored the lowest (