Global Soil Microbial Biomass Carbon, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus Compilation

NASA's dataset compiles 3,422 data points from 315 publications on soil microbial biomass carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus concentrations from the late 1970s to 2012. It includes associated soil properties, site characteristics, and long-term climate data for samples collected primarily at 0-15 cm depth, with profile data to 100 cm. The data were used to estimate global storage of microbial biomass C and N across 12 major biomes.

Use Cases

• Modeling global soil carbon and nitrogen storage based on microbial biomass concentrations.
• Analyzing relationships between soil microbial biomass and biome type across a global spatial extent.
• Studying the vertical distribution of microbial nutrients using the profile sample subset.
• Correlating microbial biomass with site-specific climate and soil property data.

Strengths

• Large compilation of 3,422 data points from 315 peer-reviewed papers.
• Enhanced with geospatial attributes like latitude/longitude, enabling linkage to global climate and soil databases.
• Includes a companion file linking data points to their original publication references.

Limitations

• Data freshness is unclear; the core data covers publications up to 2012, but platform metadata shows a 2026 update date, suggesting a potential conflict.
• Specific column names are not provided, limiting precise understanding of the data structure.
• License is specified only as 'other-license-specified' without further detail.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Compiled from a survey of scientific publications.

Time Range

late 1970s to 2012

Freshness

Data covers publications up to 2012; platform metadata shows an update in 2026.

Geography

Global