Global Soil Carbon Stabilization Data from 1,167 Observations Across Four Ecosystems

A global dataset of 1,167 observations across forest, grassland, cropland, and wetland ecosystems quantifies soil organic carbon stabilization. It includes concentrations and contributions of microbial necromass carbon and plant-derived carbon in the 0–50 cm soil layer. The dataset was created by Xuefeng Xie and last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling soil carbon vulnerability to climate change based on the identified direct control of climate on microbial necromass carbon.
• Comparing carbon stabilization pathways across ecosystems based on the reported concentrations and contributions of microbial and plant-derived carbon.
• Analyzing hierarchical controls on soil carbon using the described framework of geographic, climatic, and edaphic factors.
• Parameterizing soil carbon modules in Earth system models based on the provided global patterns and key limiting factors like total nitrogen and pH.

Strengths

• Dataset includes 1,167 global observations, providing a substantial sample size for analysis.
• Quantifies specific carbon pools: microbial necromass carbon (10.92 g kg–1 average) and plant-derived carbon (8.05 g kg–1 average).
• Analysis covers four major ecosystem types (forest, grassland, cropland, wetland) and two soil depth layers (0–20 cm, 0–50 cm).
• Data analysis employed multiple statistical methods (variance partitioning, random forest, structural equation modeling).

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is small in file size (965.9 KB), indicating limited scope or aggregated summary data.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Xuefeng Xie.

Collection Method

Data was compiled from a global dataset of observations; analysis used variance partitioning, random forest, and structural equation modeling.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-11 11:51:46; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global, with observations across four major ecosystem types.