Microbial Community Traits and Necromass Dynamics Shape Soil Carbon Accumulation

. Conversely, inorganic fertilisation induced an oligotrophic 'mining' strategy, in which microorganisms upregulated the degradation of complex organic matter under carbon-limited conditions, restricting sustained SOC accumulation primarily to the MAOC pool. A global meta-analysis of field experiments (0-120 years) corroborated these temporal trajectories across diverse soil types, showing that SOC under organic fertilisation increases in a time-dependent manner, reaching a 77% gain after 80 years (three-fold greater than under inorganic inputs). Overall, organic fertilisation enhances total SOC via POC and MAOC accumulation, whereas inorganic fertilisation mainly increases MAOC. Long-term SOC persistence depends not only on carbon inputs, but also on microbial community traits and necromass dynamics, suggesting that aligning nutrient inputs with these biological mechanisms is critical for sustainable carbon sequestration.

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Publication Details

Journal
Global Change Biology
Published
2026-05-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70906
Primary Topic
Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Microbial Community Traits and Necromass Dynamics Shape Soil Carbon Accumulation

D Madoc Jones, Karina A. Marsden, Wankun Pan, Q L et al.
Global Change Biology
Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
article

Microbial Community Traits and Necromass Dynamics Shape Soil Carbon Accumulation

D Madoc Jones, Karina A. Marsden, Wankun Pan, Q L, X S Chen, Guopeng Liang, Tida Ge, Wolfgang Wanek, Yongchao Liang, David R. Chadwick, Sheng Tang, Yuanhe Yang, Ji Chen, Andrew S. Gregory, Lianghuan Wu, Zhongkui Luo
article en

Abstract

. Conversely, inorganic fertilisation induced an oligotrophic 'mining' strategy, in which microorganisms upregulated the degradation of complex organic matter under carbon-limited conditions, restricting sustained SOC accumulation primarily to the MAOC pool. A global meta-analysis of field experiments (0-120 years) corroborated these temporal trajectories across diverse soil types, showing that SOC under organic fertilisation increases in a time-dependent manner, reaching a 77% gain after 80 years (three-fold greater than under inorganic inputs). Overall, organic fertilisation enhances total SOC via POC and MAOC accumulation, whereas inorganic fertilisation mainly increases MAOC. Long-term SOC persistence depends not only on carbon inputs, but also on microbial community traits and necromass dynamics, suggesting that aligning nutrient inputs with these biological mechanisms is critical for sustainable carbon sequestration.

Global Change BiologyVol. 32(5)
Ningbo University (CN), Bangor University (GB), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Rothamsted Research (GB), Beijing Botanical Garden (CN), Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (AU), Institute of Botany (CN), Institute of Earth Environment (CN), China Agricultural University (CN), Zhejiang University (CN), University of Hong Kong (HK)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, Yunnan Key Research and Development Program
Responsible consumption and production
Openalex Percentile: Top 8%
Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
DOISourceOpenAlex
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