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Model uncertainty obscures major driver of soil carbon

Nature volume 627, pages E1–E3 (2024)Cite this article

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Matters Arising to this article was published on 06 March 2024

The Original Article was published on 24 May 2023

arising from: F. Tao et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06042-3 (2023).

Understanding the formation and stabilization mechanisms of soil organic carbon (SOC) is important for managing land carbon (C) and mitigating climate change. Tao et al.1 reported that microbial C use efficiency (CUE) is the primary determinant of global SOC storage and that the relative impact of plant C inputs on SOC is minor. Although soil microbes undoubtedly play an important role in SOC cycling, we are concerned about the robustness of the approach taken by Tao et al.1. The potential biases in their analyses may lead to misleading, model-dependent results.

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Fig. 1: Sensitivity of the CUE–SOC relationship to the inclusion of density-dependent microbial turnover in process-based soil models.

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Acknowledgements

D.S.G., X.H., and R.Z.A. acknowledge the CALIPSO project, which is supported by the generosity of Eric and Wendy Schmidt by recommendation of the Schmidt Futures programme. D.S.G. and X.H. acknowledge support from the EJP Soil ICONICA project. Funding for E.A. was provided by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no 891576.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, IPSL-LSCE, CEA/CNRS/UVSQ, Orme des Merisiers, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    Xianjin He, Rose Z. Abramoff, Elsa Abs & Daniel S. Goll

  2. Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA

    Katerina Georgiou

  3. Carbon-Water Research Station in Karst Regions of Northern Guangdong, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Haicheng Zhang

  4. Ronin Institute, Montclair, NJ, USA

    Rose Z. Abramoff

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  1. Xianjin He
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  4. Katerina Georgiou
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Contributions

D.S.G., X.H. and E.A. conceptualized and designed this idea. X.H., R.Z.A., E.A., K.G., H.Z. and D.S.G. discussed the results and contributed to the text.

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Correspondence to Daniel S. Goll.

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He, X., Abramoff, R.Z., Abs, E. et al. Model uncertainty obscures major driver of soil carbon. Nature 627, E1–E3 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06999-1

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