Cerrado Soil Microbial Biomass Under Fire Regimes

This dataset quantifies microbial biomass via phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis in Cerrado woodland-savannah soils near Brasilia, Brazil. Samples were collected from June 2000 to June 2001 across five plots with varying fire histories, including long-term fire exclusion, biennial prescribed burns, and an active pasture. The research was conducted under NASA's LBA-ECO project to assess the effects of fire and land cover change on soil microbial communities.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the relationship between long-term fire exclusion (since 1973) and soil microbial biomass concentration.
• Comparing microbial community responses between biennial prescribed fire plots and an active pasture (Brachiaria brizantha).
• Investigating seasonal variation in PLFA-based microbial biomass from June 2000 to June 2001.
• Assessing the impact of vegetation cover change on soil microbial communities in the Cerrado biome.

Strengths

• Provides a controlled comparison across five distinct land management and fire history plots.
• Offers a full year of seasonal data collection from June 2000 to June 2001.
• Biomass is quantified using the specific biochemical method of phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific column names are unavailable across all sources.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between platforms (2001-06-01 on NASA Earthdata vs. 2026-03-13 on Data.gov).
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without further detail.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) LBA-ECO project.

Collection Method

Soil samples (0-5 cm depth) were collected and microbial biomass was determined as the total concentration of phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs).

Time Range

2000-06 to 2001-06

Freshness

2026-03-13 01:00:14.624121

Geography

Cerrado woodland-savannah area, Brasilia, Brazil.