The biogeography of soil microbial dormancy

This dataset shows the proportion of dormant microorganisms in soils across different ecosystems at the national scale of China. Here, we collected 591 soil samples from 197 field sites across China from June to August 2022, comprising 47 forests, 25 grasslands, 54 croplands, and 17 deserts. We determined the proportions of active and dead cells using 5-Cyano-2,3-ditolyl tetrazolium chloride (CTC) and Propidium Iodide (PI) staining experiment and quantified the proportion of soil microbial dormant cells (Dormancy%). This dataset was primarily led by Professor Zhao Fazhu of Northwest University (China), with assistance from Professor Ren Chengjie of Northwest A&F University and Professor Zhou Zhenghu of Northeast Forestry University.