2026-10-14T13:26:04Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/32016042 2026-09-23T10:10:32Z category_24358 category_24235 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

<b>Physicochemical protection outweighs microbial carbon use efficiency in regulating soil organic carbon across an aridity gradient</b> Junxiao Pan (12970592) Jinsong wang (22939996) Shuli Niu (14143626) Microbial ecology Terrestrial ecology Aridity Index Microbial carbon use efficiency Microbial Enzyme Activity Microbial respiration <p dir="ltr">Microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) is widely regarded as a key regulator of soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics, yet its importance relative to plant carbon inputs, edaphic conditions, microbial attributes, and <a href="" target="_blank">physicochemical protection</a> remains poorly understood. Here, we conducted large–scale soil samplings across a 3,000–km aridity gradient on the Tibetan Plateau to evaluate the role of microbial CUE in shaping SOC. Our findings indicate that physicochemical protection, rather than microbial CUE, is the primary control on SOC across the aridity gradient. As aridification is projected to intensify on the Tibetan Plateau under future climate change, explicitly incorporating stabilization mechanisms into Earth system models will be critical for improving projections of soil carbon–climate feedback.</p> 2026-04-15T01:30:54Z Dataset Dataset 10.6084/m9.figshare.32016042.v4 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Physicochemical_protection_outweighs_microbial_CUE_for_SOC/32016042 CC BY 4.0