Ecoenzymatic stoichiometry reveals widespread soil phosphorus limitation to microbial metabolism across Chinese forests

8 páginas.- 4 figuras.- 57 referencias.- Supplementary information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00523-5Forest soils contain a large amount of organic carbon and contribute to terrestrial carbon sequestration. However, we still have a poor understanding of what nutrients limit soil microbial metabolism that drives soil carbon release across the range of boreal to tropical forests. Here we used ecoenzymatic stoichiometry methods to investigate the patterns of microbial nutrient limitations within soil profiles (organic, eluvial and parent material horizons) across 181 forest sites throughout China. Results show that, in 80% of these forests, soil microbes were limited by phosphorus availability. Microbial phosphorus limitation increased with soil depth and from boreal to tropical forests as ecosystems become wetter, warmer, more productive, and is affected by anthropogenic nitrogen deposition. We also observed an unexpected shift in the latitudinal pattern of microbial phosphorus limitation with the lowest phosphorus limitation in the warm temperate zone (41-42 degrees N). Our study highlights the importance of soil phosphorus limitation to restoring forests and predicting their carbon sinks. Phosphorus limitation of soil microbial communities in forests is widespread, increases with soil depth, and is enhanced under wetter and warmer climates and elevated anthropogenic nitrogen deposition, according to ecoenzymatic stoichiometric analyses across 181 forests in China.This study was financially supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB40000000), Funds for International Cooperation and Exchange of National Natural Science Foundation of China (32061123007), National Natural Science Foundation of China (41977031), Program of State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology CAS (SKLLQGZR1803). Contributions from Dr. Chen are funded by H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (No. 839806). M.D.-B. acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the I+D+i project PID2020-115813RA-I00 funded by CIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. M.D.-B. is also supported by a project of the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) and the Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades of the Junta de Andalucía (FEDER Andalucía 2014-2020 Objetivo temático “01–Refuerzo de la investigación, el desarrollo tecnológico y la innovación”) associated with the research project P20_00879 (ANDABIOMA).Peer reviewe