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A global database of soil microbial phospholipid fatty acids and enzyme activities

  • Laura G. van Galen
  • , Gabriel Reuben Smith
  • , Andrew J. Margenot
  • , Mark P. Waldrop
  • , Thomas W. Crowther
  • , Kabir G. Peay
  • , Robert B. Jackson
  • , Kailiang Yu
  • , Anna Abrahão
  • , Talaat A. Ahmed
  • , Juha M. Alatalo
  • , Sten Anslan
  • , Mark A. Anthony
  • , Ademir Sergio Ferreira Araujo
  • , Judith Ascher-Jenull
  • , Elizabeth M. Bach
  • , Mohammad Bahram
  • , Christopher C.M. Baker
  • , Petr Baldrian
  • , Richard D. Bardgett
  • M. Noelia Barrios-Garcia, Felipe Bastida, Francesca Beggi, Liane G. Benning, Luca Bragazza, Arthur A.D. Broadbent, Concha Cano-Díaz, Anna M. Cates, Carlos E.P. Cerri, Simone Cesarz, Baodong Chen, Aimeé T. Classen, Mathilde Borg Dahl, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Nico Eisenhauer, Svetlana Yu Evgrafova, Nicolas Fanin, Flavio Fornasier, Romeu Francisco, André L.C. Franco, Serita D. Frey, Hannu Fritze, Carlos García, Pablo García-Palacios, María Gómez-Brandón, Marina Gonzalez-Polo, Beatriz Gozalo, Robert Griffiths, Carlos Guerra, Moritz Hallama, Inga Hiiesalu, Mohammad Zabed Hossain, Yajun Hu, Heribert Insam, Vincent E.J. Jassey, Lili Jiang, Ellen Kandeler, Petr Kohout, Urmas Kõljalg, Valentyna Krashevska, Xiaofei Li, Jing Zhong Lu, Xiankai Lu, Shan Luo, Stefanie Lutz, Kathleen Allison Mackie-Haas, Fernando T. Maestre, Minna Malmivaara-Lämsä, Kai Mangelsdorf, Maria Manjarrez, Sven Marhan, Ashley Martin, Kelly E. Mason, Jordan Mayor, Rebecca L. McCulley, Mari Moora, Paula V. Morais, Miriam Muñoz-Rojas, Rajasekaran Murugan, Andrew T. Nottingham, Victoria Ochoa, Raúl Ochoa-Hueso, Jane Oja, Pål Axel Olsson, Maarja Öpik, Nick Ostle, Krista Peltoniemi, Taina Pennanen, David S. Pescador, G. Kenny Png, Christian Poll, Sergei Põlme, Anton M. Potapov, Anders Priemé, William Pritchard, Jeremy Puissant, Sandra Mara Barbosa Rocha, Christoph Rosinger, Liliane Ruess, Emma J. Sayer, Stefan Scheu, Robert L. Sinsabaugh, Lindsey C. Slaughter, Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia, José Paulo Sousa, Lee Stanish, Shu Ichi Sugiyama, Leho Tedersoo, Pankaj Trivedi, Tanel Vahter, Jana Voriskova, Dirk Wagner, Cong Wang, David A. Wardle, Jeanette Whitaker, Yuanhe Yang, Zhiwei Zhong, Kai Zhu, Lori A. Ziolkowski, Martin Zobel, Johan van den Hoogen
  • Department of Environmental Systems Sciences
  • Stanford University
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Energy and Environment (iSEE)
  • United States Geological Survey
  • Princeton University
  • Universidade Federal do Ceará
  • Qatar University
  • University of Jyväskylä
  • Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University
  • University of Vienna
  • Universidade Federal do Piauí
  • University of Innsbruck
  • Nature Conservancy in Illinois
  • Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
  • Aarhus University
  • U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
  • Czech Academy of Sciences
  • University of Manchester
  • Lancaster University
  • University of Vermont
  • Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
  • CEBAS- CSIC - Centre of Edafology and Applied Biology of Segura 
  • Alliance Bioversity International - CIAT
  • Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - German Research Centre for Geosciences
  • Freie Universität Berlin
  • Agroscope
  • University of Stirling
  • Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo
  • University of Minnesota Twin Cities
  • Universidade de São Paulo
  • German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
  • Leipzig University
  • CAS - Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences
  • University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • University of Greifswald
  • CSIC - Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Seville
  • RAS - Sukachev Institute of Forest, Siberian Branch
  • RAS - Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch
  • INRAE
  • CREA Research Center for Viticulture and Enology
  • University of Coimbra
  • Indiana University Bloomington
  • University of New Hampshire
  • Luke Natural Resources Institute Finland
  • CSIC - Biological Mission of Galicia
  • University of Vigo
  • Universidad Nacional del Comahue-CONICET
  • University of Alicante
  • Bangor University
  • University of Hohenheim
  • University of Tartu
  • University of Dhaka
  • Hunan Agricultural University
  • BioTreaT GmbH
  • CNRS and Paul Sabatier University
  • Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung
  • Jilin Agricultural University
  • University of Göttingen
  • CAS - South China Institute of Botany
  • University of Liverpool
  • King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
  • Microbiology Laboratories Australia
  • Microbiology Laboratories Australia
  • Benevita Biotech
  • Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
  • 201 Mission St. Suite 1500
  • University of Kentucky
  • University of New South Wales
  • Valli Sustainability Research and Education
  • University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna
  • University of Leeds
  • University of Jaén
  • Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • University of Cádiz
  • Lund University
  • Complutense University
  • Singapore Botanic Gardens
  • Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung
  • University of Copenhagen
  • Université Joseph Fourier
  • Humboldt University of Berlin
  • Ulm University
  • University of New Mexico
  • Texas Tech University
  • Hasselt University
  • University of Colorado Boulder
  • Hirosaki University
  • King Saud University
  • Colorado State University
  • CAS - Institute of Microbiology
  • Umeå University
  • CAS - Institute of Botany
  • Northeast Normal University
  • CAS - Northeast Institute of Geography and Agricultural Ecology
  • Inner Mongolia Agricultural University
  • University of South Carolina

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)
7 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Soil microbes drive ecosystem function and play a critical role in how ecosystems respond to global change. Research surrounding soil microbial communities has rapidly increased in recent decades, and substantial data relating to phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) and potential enzyme activity have been collected and analysed. However, studies have mostly been restricted to local and regional scales, and their accuracy and usefulness are limited by the extent of accessible data. Here we aim to improve data availability by collating a global database of soil PLFA and potential enzyme activity measurements from 12,258 georeferenced samples located across all continents, 5.1% of which have not previously been published. The database contains data relating to 113 PLFAs and 26 enzyme activities, and includes metadata such as sampling date, sample depth, and soil pH, total carbon, and total nitrogen. This database will help researchers in conducting both global- and local-scale studies to better understand soil microbial biomass and function.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1568
Number of pages13
JournalScientific Data
Volume12
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2025
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.

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