Unfolding the potential of soil microbial community for accumulation of necromass carbon at large scale

It is unclear, however, how microbes mediate the accumulation of necromass in soil because microbial communities are prohibitively diverse. To bridge this knowledge gap, here, biomarkers of microbial cell walls (amino sugars) were combined with high-throughput sequencing, spanning a 900 km climatic gradient through the Loess Plateau. The cropland and three restoration restoration types- grassland, shrubland, and forestland- were included, and 291 samples were collected from these contrasting ecosystems.