Building a global database of soil microbial biomass and function: a call for collaboration.

Area of Science:

• Soil ecology
• Biogeography
• Microbial ecology

Background:

• Global analyses are crucial for understanding ecological patterns and environmental issues.
• Soil ecology has revealed unexpected biogeographic patterns in belowground communities.
• Existing global datasets suffer from geographic bias, limiting accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address data limitations in global soil ecology studies.
• To initiate a collaborative global analysis of soil microbial properties.
• To invite contributions to a comprehensive soil phospholipid fatty acid and enzyme activity dataset.

Main Methods:

• Compiling existing soil phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) measurements.
• Gathering data on potential enzyme activity in soils.
• Planning statistical analyses for a global dataset.

Main Results:

• Current dataset extent and composition are summarized.
• Planned analytical approaches are outlined.
• Information for prospective collaborators is provided.

Conclusions:

• Expanding global soil datasets is essential for accurate ecological synthesis.
• Collaboration is key to overcoming geographic biases in ecological data.
• This initiative aims to advance global soil ecology research.