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

van Galen, Laura G. and Smith, Gabriel Reuben and Margenot, Andrew J. and Waldrop, Mark P. and Crowther, Thomas W. and Peay, Kabir G. and Jackson, Robert B. and Yu, Kailiang and Abrahão, Anna and Ahmed, Talaat A. and Alatalo, Juha M. and Anslan, Sten and Anthony, Mark A. and Araujo, Ademir Sergio Ferreira and Ascher-Jenull, Judith and Bach, Elizabeth M. and Bahram, Mohammad and Baker, Christopher C. M. and Baldrian, Petr and Bardgett, Richard D. and Barrios-Garcia, M. Noelia and Bastida, Felipe and Beggi, Francesca and Benning, Liane G. and Bragazza, Luca and Broadbent, Arthur A. D. and Cano-Díaz, Concha and Cates, Anna M. and Cerri, Carlos E. P. and Cesarz, Simone and Chen, Baodong and Classen, Aimeé T. and Dahl, Mathilde Borg and Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel and Eisenhauer, Nico and Evgrafova, Svetlana Yu. and Fanin, Nicolas and Fornasier, Flavio and Francisco, Romeu and Franco, André L. C. and Frey, Serita D. and Fritze, Hannu and García, Carlos and García-Palacios, Pablo and Gómez-Brandón, María and Gonzalez-Polo, Marina and Gozalo, Beatriz and Griffiths, Robert and Guerra, Carlos and Hallama, Moritz and Hiiesalu, Inga and Hossain, Mohammad Zabed and Hu, Yajun and Insam, Heribert and Jassey, Vincent E. J. and Jiang, Lili and Kandeler, Ellen and Kohout, Petr and Kõljalg, Urmas and Krashevska, Valentyna and Li, Xiaofei and Lu, Jing-Zhong and Lu, Xiankai and Luo, Shan and Lutz, Stefanie and Mackie-Haas, Kathleen Allison and Maestre, Fernando T. and Malmivaara-Lämsä, Minna and Mangelsdorf, Kai and Manjarrez, Maria and Marhan, Sven and Martin, Ashley and Mason, Kelly E. and Mayor, Jordan and McCulley, Rebecca L. and Moora, Mari and Morais, Paula V. and Muñoz-Rojas, Miriam and Murugan, Rajasekaran and Nottingham, Andrew T. and Ochoa, Victoria and Ochoa-Hueso, Raúl and Oja, Jane and Olsson, Pål Axel and Öpik, Maarja and Ostle, Nick and Peltoniemi, Krista and Pennanen, Taina and Pescador, David S. and Png, G. Kenny and Poll, Christian and Põlme, Sergei and Potapov, Anton M. and Priemé, Anders and Pritchard, William and Puissant, Jeremy and Rocha, Sandra Mara Barbosa and Rosinger, Christoph and Ruess, Liliane and Sayer, Emma J. and Scheu, Stefan and Sinsabaugh, Robert L. and Slaughter, Lindsey C. and Soudzilovskaia, Nadejda A. and Sousa, José Paulo and Stanish, Lee and Sugiyama, Shu-ichi and Tedersoo, Leho and Trivedi, Pankaj and Vahter, Tanel and Voriskova, Jana and Wagner, Dirk and Wang, Cong and Wardle, David A. and Whitaker, Jeanette and Yang, Yuanhe and Zhong, Zhiwei and Zhu, Kai and Ziolkowski, Lori A. and Zobel, Martin and van den Hoogen, Johan (2025) A global database of soil microbial phospholipid fatty acids and enzyme activities. Scientific Data, 12 (1): 1568. ISSN 2052-4463

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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.