Land Use Interacts With Climate to Influence Microbial Diversity‐To‐Biomass Ratios Across Europe via Soil Organic Carbon and Nitrogen

Ecosystem functioning is potentially dependent on the relationships between soil microbial diversity and biomass. Yet, it remains unclear how land use and climate influence these relationships. Here, we (i) analysed relationships and ratios between richness and biomass of bacteria and fungi in ~500 soils across Europe, including three land-use types (woodlands, grasslands and croplands) and climates (cold, temperate and arid) and (ii) identified the driving factors of changes in richness:biomass (R:B) ratios. Richness and biomass of soil bacteria and fungi followed a unimodal pattern, with a peak in mid-levels of biomass. This pattern was more evident in bacteria and more clearly exerted by land use than by climate. Bacterial R:B ratios decreased with land use in the following order: croplands > woodlands > grasslands. Fungal R:B ratios decreased as follows: grasslands > croplands > woodlands. Climate was found to interact with land use. In this way, arid climate tended to increase bacterial R:B ratios in the different land uses; however, the agricultural practices associated with croplands seem to buffer this effect. In fungi, the interactive effect of land use and climate was less straightforward than for bacteria. According to our models, soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (N) in bacteria and SOC in fungi were identified as the primary predictors of R:B ratios. Therefore, factors related to climate and land-use change with impact on SOC and N contents are potential disruptors of soil microbial R:B ratios. This study clarifies the diversity:biomass relationships across different land uses and climates.