A global database of soil microbial phospholipid fatty acids and enzyme activities

Laura G van Galen¹, Gabriel Reuben Smith^{2

3}, Andrew J Margenot^{4

5}, Mark P Waldrop⁶, Thomas W Crowther², Kabir G Peay^{3

7}, Robert B Jackson⁷, Kailiang Yu^{8

9}, Anna Abrahão¹⁰, Talaat A Ahmed¹¹, Juha M Alatalo¹¹, Sten Anslan^{12

13}, Mark A Anthony¹⁴, Ademir Sergio Ferreira Araujo¹⁵, Judith Ascher-Jenull¹⁶, Elizabeth M Bach¹⁷, Mohammad Bahram^{18

19}, Christopher C M Baker²⁰, Petr Baldrian²¹, Richard D Bardgett^{22

23}, M Noelia Barrios-Garcia^{24

25}, Felipe Bastida²⁶, Francesca Beggi²⁷, Liane G Benning^{28

29}, Luca Bragazza³⁰, Arthur A D Broadbent^{22

31}, Concha Cano-Díaz³², Anna M Cates³³, Carlos E P Cerri³⁴, Simone Cesarz^{35

36}, Baodong Chen^{37

38}, Aimeé T Classen³⁹, Mathilde Borg Dahl⁴⁰, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo⁴¹, Nico Eisenhauer^{35

36}, Svetlana Yu Evgrafova^{42

43}, Nicolas Fanin⁴⁴, Flavio Fornasier⁴⁵, Romeu Francisco⁴⁶, André L C Franco⁴⁷, Serita D Frey⁴⁸, Hannu Fritze⁴⁹, Carlos García²⁶, Pablo García-Palacios⁵⁰, María Gómez-Brandón⁵¹, Marina Gonzalez-Polo⁵², Beatriz Gozalo^{53

54}, Robert Griffiths⁵⁵, Carlos Guerra^{36

56}, Moritz Hallama⁵⁷, Inga Hiiesalu⁵⁸, Mohammad Zabed Hossain⁵⁹, Yajun Hu^{37

38

60}, Heribert Insam⁶¹, Vincent E J Jassey⁶², Lili Jiang⁶³, Ellen Kandeler⁵⁷, Petr Kohout⁶⁴, Urmas Kõljalg⁵⁸, Valentyna Krashevska⁶⁵, Xiaofei Li⁶⁶, Jing-Zhong Lu⁶⁷, Xiankai Lu⁶⁸, Shan Luo^{23

69}, Stefanie Lutz^{28

70}, Kathleen Allison Mackie-Haas⁷¹, Fernando T Maestre⁷², Minna Malmivaara-Lämsä⁴⁹, Kai Mangelsdorf⁷³, Maria Manjarrez⁷⁴, Sven Marhan⁵⁷, Ashley Martin^{75

76}, Kelly E Mason⁷⁷, Jordan Mayor⁷⁸, Rebecca L McCulley⁷⁹, Mari Moora⁵⁸, Paula V Morais⁴⁶, Miriam Muñoz-Rojas^{41

80}, Rajasekaran Murugan^{81

82}, Andrew T Nottingham⁸³, Victoria Ochoa⁸⁴, Raúl Ochoa-Hueso^{85

86}, Jane Oja⁵⁸, Pål Axel Olsson⁸⁷, Maarja Öpik⁵⁸, Nick Ostle²³, Krista Peltoniemi⁴⁹, Taina Pennanen⁴⁹, David S Pescador⁸⁸, G Kenny Png^{22

89}, Christian Poll⁵⁷, Sergei Põlme^{58

90}, Anton M Potapov^{35

91}, Anders Priemé⁹², William Pritchard²², Jeremy Puissant⁹³, Sandra Mara Barbosa Rocha¹⁵, Christoph Rosinger⁹⁴, Liliane Ruess⁹⁵, Emma J Sayer⁹⁶, Stefan Scheu^{67

97}, Robert L Sinsabaugh⁹⁸, Lindsey C Slaughter⁹⁹, Nadejda A Soudzilovskaia¹⁰⁰, José Paulo Sousa¹⁰¹, Lee Stanish¹⁰², Shu-Ichi Sugiyama¹⁰³, Leho Tedersoo^{58

104

105}, Pankaj Trivedi^{106

107}, Tanel Vahter⁵⁸, Jana Voriskova²¹, Dirk Wagner¹⁰⁸, Cong Wang¹⁰⁹, David A Wardle¹¹⁰, Jeanette Whitaker⁷⁷, Yuanhe Yang^{38

111}, Zhiwei Zhong^{112

113

114}, Kai Zhu¹¹⁵, Lori A Ziolkowski¹¹⁶, Martin Zobel⁵⁸, Johan van den Hoogen¹¹⁷

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Integrative Biology, Department of Environmental Systems Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. laura.vangalen9@gmail.com.
² Institute of Integrative Biology, Department of Environmental Systems Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
³ Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
⁴ Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
⁵ Agroecosystem Sustainability Center (ASC), Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment (iSEE), Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
⁶ US Geological Survey, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Menlo Park, California, USA.
⁷ Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
⁸ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
⁹ High Meadows Environmental Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Biology, Science Center, Federal University of Ceará - UFC, Fortaleza, CE, 60440-900, Brazil.
¹¹ Environmental Science Center, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.
¹² Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
¹³ Department of Biology, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁴ Center for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna, 1030, Vienna, Austria.
¹⁵ Soil Microbial Ecology Group, Universidade Federal do Piauí (UFPI), 64019-550, Teresina, Piauí, Brazil.
¹⁶ Department of Experimental Architecture, Integrative Design Extremes, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 21, Innsbruck, A-6020, Austria.
¹⁷ The Nature Conservancy in Illinois, Nachusa Grasslands, Franklin Grove, IL, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Ulls väg 16, 756 51, Sweden.
¹⁹ Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Slagelse, 4200, Denmark.
²⁰ US Army ERDC Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Hanover, NH, 03755, USA.
²¹ Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Videnska 1083, 14200 Praha 4, Prague, Czech Republic.
²² Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK.
²³ Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK.
²⁴ Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA.
²⁵ CENAC-APN, CONICET, Bariloche, Argentina.
²⁶ CEBAS-CSIC Department of Soil and Water Conservation Campus Universitario de Espinardo, 30100, Murcia, Spain.
²⁷ Alliance Bioversity International - CIAT, Bengaluru, India.
²⁸ GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Interface Geochemistry Section, Telegrafenberg, 14473, Potsdam, Germany.
²⁹ Department of Earth Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, 12249, Berlin, Germany.
³⁰ Field-Crop Systems and Plant Nutrition, Agroscope, Route de Duillier 60, CH-1260, Nyon, Switzerland.
³¹ Biological & Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA, Stirling, UK.
³² CISAS - Centre for Research and Development in Agrifood Systems and Sustainability, Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, Rua Escola Industrial e Comercial Nun'Álvares, 34, 4900-347, Viana do Castelo, Portugal.
³³ Department of Soil, Water, and Climate, University of Minnesota, 1991 Upper Buford Circle, St Paul, MN, 55108, USA.
³⁴ University of São Paulo ESALQ/USP Av Pádua Dias 11, 13418-900, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil.
³⁵ German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Puschstrasse 4, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
³⁶ Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Puschstrasse 4, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
³⁷ State Key Laboratory of Regional and Urban Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³⁸ College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³⁹ Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
⁴⁰ Institute of Microbiology, Center for Functional Genomics of Microbes, University of Greifswald, 17489, Greifswald, Germany.
⁴¹ Laboratorio de Biodiversidad y Funcionamiento Ecosistémico, Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (IRNAS), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Av., Reina Mercedes 10, E-41012, Sevilla, Spain.
⁴² Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS, Federal Research Center "Krasnoyarsk Science Center SB RAS", Krasnoyarsk, 660036, Russia.
⁴³ Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 677010, Yakutsk, Russia.
⁴⁴ INRAE, Bordeaux Sciences Agro, UMR 1391 Interaction Soil Plant Atmosphere (ISPA), 71 avenue Edouard Bourlaux, 33882, Villenave-d'Ornon cedex, France.
⁴⁵ CREA Research Center for Viticulture and Enology, Gorizia, Italy.
⁴⁶ University of Coimbra, Centre for Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Processes, ARISE, Department of Life Sciences, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal.
⁴⁷ O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA.
⁴⁸ Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 03824, USA.
⁴⁹ Natural Resources Institute Finland, Luke, Latokartanonkaari 9, 00790, Helsinki, Finland.
⁵⁰ Instituto de Ciencias Agrarias, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Serrano 115 bis, 28006, Madrid, Spain.
⁵¹ Animal Ecology Group (GEA), University of Vigo, E-36310, Vigo, Spain.
⁵² INIBIOMA, CONICET- Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Bariloche, Argentina.
⁵³ Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio "Ramón Margalef", Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, Spain.
⁵⁴ Departamento de Ecología, Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, Spain.
⁵⁵ School of Environmental and Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Gwynedd, LL57 2DG, UK.
⁵⁶ University of Coimbra, Department of Geography, Colégio de São Jerónimo, Largo D.Dinis, 3004-530, Coimbra, Portugal.
⁵⁷ Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, University of Hohenheim, D-70593, Stuttgart-Hohenheim, Germany.
⁵⁸ Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, 2 J. Liivi St, 50409, Tartu, Estonia.
⁵⁹ Department of Botany, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, 1000, Bangladesh.
⁶⁰ College of Agronomy, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, P.R. China.
⁶¹ BioTreaT GmbH, Technikerstrasse 21, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria.
⁶² Centre de Recherche sur la Biodiversité et l'Environnement (CRBE), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, IRD, Toulouse INP, Université Toulouse 3 - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Toulouse, France.
⁶³ State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
⁶⁴ Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Biogeography, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Videnska 1083, 14200 Praha 4, Prague, Czech Republic.
⁶⁵ Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Functional Environmental Genomics, Frankfurt, Germany.
⁶⁶ College of Resources and Environmental Sciences/Key Laboratory of Sustainable Utilization of Soil Resources in the Commodity Grain Bases in Jilin Province, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, 130118, China.
⁶⁷ Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, Untere Karspüle 2, 37073, Göttingen, Germany.
⁶⁸ Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
⁶⁹ Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behaviour, University of Liverpool, Crown street, Liverpool, L69 7BE, UK.
⁷⁰ Plant-Soil Interactions, Agroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Reckenholzstrasse 191, 8046, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁷¹ Agroscope, Viticulture, 8820, Wädenswil, Switzerland.
⁷² Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁷³ GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Organic Geochemistry Section, Telegrafenberg, 14473, Potsdam, Germany.
⁷⁴ Microbiology Laboratories Australia, St Marys, 5042, Australia.
⁷⁵ Microbiology Laboratories Australia, Adelaide, Australia.
⁷⁶ Benevita Biotech, Adelaide, Australia.
⁷⁷ UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Library Avenue, Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4AP, UK.
⁷⁸ ICF, 201 Mission St. Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA, 94105, USA.
⁷⁹ Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40546-0312, USA.
⁸⁰ Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, UNSW, Sydney, 2052, NSW, Australia.
⁸¹ Valli Sustainability Research and Education Foundation, Kanchipuram, India.
⁸² Institute of Soil Research, Department of Ecosystem Management, Climate and Biodiversity, BOKU University, 1190, Vienna, Austria.
⁸³ School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
⁸⁴ Instituto Univeritario de Investigación en Olivar y Aceite de Oliva-INUO, Universidad de Jaén, Jaén, Spain.
⁸⁵ Department of Biology, IVAGRO, University of Cádiz, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario (CeiA3), Campus del Rio San Pedro, 11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain.
⁸⁶ Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), P.O. Box 50, 6700 AB, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
⁸⁷ Department of Biology, Lund University, SE-223 62, Lund, Sweden.
⁸⁸ Departamento de Farmacología, Farmacognosia y Botánica, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain, Pl. de Ramón y Cajal, s/n, Moncloa - Aravaca, 28040, Madrid, Spain.
⁸⁹ Singapore Botanic Gardens, National Parks Board, Singapore, 259569, Republic of Singapore.
⁹⁰ Natural History Museum of Tartu University, 46 Vanemuise St., 51014, Tartu, Estonia.
⁹¹ Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Gorlitz, Am Museum 1, D-02826, Görlitz, Germany.
⁹² Department of Biology and Center for Volatile Interactions (VOLT), University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁹³ Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LECA, Grenoble, France.
⁹⁴ Institute of Agronomy, Department of Agricultural Sciences, BOKU University, 3430, Tulln an der Donau, Austria.
⁹⁵ Institute of Biology, Ecology Group, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Philippstraße 13, 10115, Berlin, Germany.
⁹⁶ Institute of Botany, Ulm University, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
⁹⁷ Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use, University of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 1, 37077, Göttingen, Germany.
⁹⁸ Biology Department, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA.
⁹⁹ Texas Tech University, Department of Plant and Soil Science, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA.
¹⁰⁰ Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University - Campus Diepenbeek Agoralaan Building D, Units AB, B-3590, Diepenbeek, Belgium.
¹⁰¹ Centre for Functional Ecology, Associate Laboratory TERRA, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal.
¹⁰² Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA.
¹⁰³ Faculty of Agriculture and Life Science, Hirosaki University, Bunkyocho 1, Hirosaki 036-8560, Aomori, Japan.
¹⁰⁴ Mycology and Microbiology Center, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
¹⁰⁵ Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁰⁶ Microbiome Network and Department of Agricultural Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA.
¹⁰⁷ Institute of Genomics for Crop Abiotic Stress Tolerance, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA.
¹⁰⁸ GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Geomicrobiology Section, Telegrafenberg, 14473, Potsdam, Germany.
¹⁰⁹ State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
¹¹⁰ Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
¹¹¹ State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
¹¹² Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education/Jilin Songnen, Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China.
¹¹³ Heilongjiang Xingkai Lake Wetland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station & Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, China.
¹¹⁴ Key Laboratory of Grassland Resources (Inner Mongolia Agricultural University), Ministry of Education, Hohhot, 010021, China.
¹¹⁵ School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
¹¹⁶ School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA.
¹¹⁷ Institute of Integrative Biology, Department of Environmental Systems Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. johan.vandenhoogen@usys.ethz.ch.

PMID: 41006295
PMCID: PMC12475190
DOI: 10.1038/s41597-025-05759-2

A global database of soil microbial phospholipid fatty acids and enzyme activities

Laura G van Galen et al. Sci Data. 2025.

. 2025 Sep 26;12(1):1568.

doi: 10.1038/s41597-025-05759-2.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Integrative Biology, Department of Environmental Systems Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. laura.vangalen9@gmail.com.
² Institute of Integrative Biology, Department of Environmental Systems Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
³ Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
⁴ Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
⁵ Agroecosystem Sustainability Center (ASC), Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment (iSEE), Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
⁶ US Geological Survey, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Menlo Park, California, USA.
⁷ Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
⁸ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
⁹ High Meadows Environmental Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Biology, Science Center, Federal University of Ceará - UFC, Fortaleza, CE, 60440-900, Brazil.
¹¹ Environmental Science Center, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.
¹² Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
¹³ Department of Biology, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁴ Center for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna, 1030, Vienna, Austria.
¹⁵ Soil Microbial Ecology Group, Universidade Federal do Piauí (UFPI), 64019-550, Teresina, Piauí, Brazil.
¹⁶ Department of Experimental Architecture, Integrative Design Extremes, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 21, Innsbruck, A-6020, Austria.
¹⁷ The Nature Conservancy in Illinois, Nachusa Grasslands, Franklin Grove, IL, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Ulls väg 16, 756 51, Sweden.
¹⁹ Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Slagelse, 4200, Denmark.
²⁰ US Army ERDC Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Hanover, NH, 03755, USA.
²¹ Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Videnska 1083, 14200 Praha 4, Prague, Czech Republic.
²² Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK.
²³ Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK.
²⁴ Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA.
²⁵ CENAC-APN, CONICET, Bariloche, Argentina.
²⁶ CEBAS-CSIC Department of Soil and Water Conservation Campus Universitario de Espinardo, 30100, Murcia, Spain.
²⁷ Alliance Bioversity International - CIAT, Bengaluru, India.
²⁸ GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Interface Geochemistry Section, Telegrafenberg, 14473, Potsdam, Germany.
²⁹ Department of Earth Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, 12249, Berlin, Germany.
³⁰ Field-Crop Systems and Plant Nutrition, Agroscope, Route de Duillier 60, CH-1260, Nyon, Switzerland.
³¹ Biological & Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA, Stirling, UK.
³² CISAS - Centre for Research and Development in Agrifood Systems and Sustainability, Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, Rua Escola Industrial e Comercial Nun'Álvares, 34, 4900-347, Viana do Castelo, Portugal.
³³ Department of Soil, Water, and Climate, University of Minnesota, 1991 Upper Buford Circle, St Paul, MN, 55108, USA.
³⁴ University of São Paulo ESALQ/USP Av Pádua Dias 11, 13418-900, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil.
³⁵ German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Puschstrasse 4, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
³⁶ Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Puschstrasse 4, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
³⁷ State Key Laboratory of Regional and Urban Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³⁸ College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³⁹ Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
⁴⁰ Institute of Microbiology, Center for Functional Genomics of Microbes, University of Greifswald, 17489, Greifswald, Germany.
⁴¹ Laboratorio de Biodiversidad y Funcionamiento Ecosistémico, Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (IRNAS), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Av., Reina Mercedes 10, E-41012, Sevilla, Spain.
⁴² Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS, Federal Research Center "Krasnoyarsk Science Center SB RAS", Krasnoyarsk, 660036, Russia.
⁴³ Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 677010, Yakutsk, Russia.
⁴⁴ INRAE, Bordeaux Sciences Agro, UMR 1391 Interaction Soil Plant Atmosphere (ISPA), 71 avenue Edouard Bourlaux, 33882, Villenave-d'Ornon cedex, France.
⁴⁵ CREA Research Center for Viticulture and Enology, Gorizia, Italy.
⁴⁶ University of Coimbra, Centre for Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Processes, ARISE, Department of Life Sciences, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal.
⁴⁷ O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA.
⁴⁸ Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 03824, USA.
⁴⁹ Natural Resources Institute Finland, Luke, Latokartanonkaari 9, 00790, Helsinki, Finland.
⁵⁰ Instituto de Ciencias Agrarias, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Serrano 115 bis, 28006, Madrid, Spain.
⁵¹ Animal Ecology Group (GEA), University of Vigo, E-36310, Vigo, Spain.
⁵² INIBIOMA, CONICET- Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Bariloche, Argentina.
⁵³ Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio "Ramón Margalef", Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, Spain.
⁵⁴ Departamento de Ecología, Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, Spain.
⁵⁵ School of Environmental and Natural Sciences, Bangor University, Gwynedd, LL57 2DG, UK.
⁵⁶ University of Coimbra, Department of Geography, Colégio de São Jerónimo, Largo D.Dinis, 3004-530, Coimbra, Portugal.
⁵⁷ Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, University of Hohenheim, D-70593, Stuttgart-Hohenheim, Germany.
⁵⁸ Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, 2 J. Liivi St, 50409, Tartu, Estonia.
⁵⁹ Department of Botany, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, 1000, Bangladesh.
⁶⁰ College of Agronomy, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, P.R. China.
⁶¹ BioTreaT GmbH, Technikerstrasse 21, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria.
⁶² Centre de Recherche sur la Biodiversité et l'Environnement (CRBE), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, IRD, Toulouse INP, Université Toulouse 3 - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Toulouse, France.
⁶³ State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Environment and Resources (TPESER), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
⁶⁴ Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Biogeography, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Videnska 1083, 14200 Praha 4, Prague, Czech Republic.
⁶⁵ Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Functional Environmental Genomics, Frankfurt, Germany.
⁶⁶ College of Resources and Environmental Sciences/Key Laboratory of Sustainable Utilization of Soil Resources in the Commodity Grain Bases in Jilin Province, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, 130118, China.
⁶⁷ Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, Untere Karspüle 2, 37073, Göttingen, Germany.
⁶⁸ Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
⁶⁹ Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behaviour, University of Liverpool, Crown street, Liverpool, L69 7BE, UK.
⁷⁰ Plant-Soil Interactions, Agroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Reckenholzstrasse 191, 8046, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁷¹ Agroscope, Viticulture, 8820, Wädenswil, Switzerland.
⁷² Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁷³ GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Organic Geochemistry Section, Telegrafenberg, 14473, Potsdam, Germany.
⁷⁴ Microbiology Laboratories Australia, St Marys, 5042, Australia.
⁷⁵ Microbiology Laboratories Australia, Adelaide, Australia.
⁷⁶ Benevita Biotech, Adelaide, Australia.
⁷⁷ UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Library Avenue, Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4AP, UK.
⁷⁸ ICF, 201 Mission St. Suite 1500, San Francisco, CA, 94105, USA.
⁷⁹ Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40546-0312, USA.
⁸⁰ Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, UNSW, Sydney, 2052, NSW, Australia.
⁸¹ Valli Sustainability Research and Education Foundation, Kanchipuram, India.
⁸² Institute of Soil Research, Department of Ecosystem Management, Climate and Biodiversity, BOKU University, 1190, Vienna, Austria.
⁸³ School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
⁸⁴ Instituto Univeritario de Investigación en Olivar y Aceite de Oliva-INUO, Universidad de Jaén, Jaén, Spain.
⁸⁵ Department of Biology, IVAGRO, University of Cádiz, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario (CeiA3), Campus del Rio San Pedro, 11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain.
⁸⁶ Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), P.O. Box 50, 6700 AB, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
⁸⁷ Department of Biology, Lund University, SE-223 62, Lund, Sweden.
⁸⁸ Departamento de Farmacología, Farmacognosia y Botánica, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain, Pl. de Ramón y Cajal, s/n, Moncloa - Aravaca, 28040, Madrid, Spain.
⁸⁹ Singapore Botanic Gardens, National Parks Board, Singapore, 259569, Republic of Singapore.
⁹⁰ Natural History Museum of Tartu University, 46 Vanemuise St., 51014, Tartu, Estonia.
⁹¹ Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Gorlitz, Am Museum 1, D-02826, Görlitz, Germany.
⁹² Department of Biology and Center for Volatile Interactions (VOLT), University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁹³ Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LECA, Grenoble, France.
⁹⁴ Institute of Agronomy, Department of Agricultural Sciences, BOKU University, 3430, Tulln an der Donau, Austria.
⁹⁵ Institute of Biology, Ecology Group, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Philippstraße 13, 10115, Berlin, Germany.
⁹⁶ Institute of Botany, Ulm University, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
⁹⁷ Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use, University of Göttingen, Büsgenweg 1, 37077, Göttingen, Germany.
⁹⁸ Biology Department, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA.
⁹⁹ Texas Tech University, Department of Plant and Soil Science, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA.
¹⁰⁰ Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University - Campus Diepenbeek Agoralaan Building D, Units AB, B-3590, Diepenbeek, Belgium.
¹⁰¹ Centre for Functional Ecology, Associate Laboratory TERRA, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal.
¹⁰² Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA.
¹⁰³ Faculty of Agriculture and Life Science, Hirosaki University, Bunkyocho 1, Hirosaki 036-8560, Aomori, Japan.
¹⁰⁴ Mycology and Microbiology Center, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
¹⁰⁵ Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁰⁶ Microbiome Network and Department of Agricultural Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA.
¹⁰⁷ Institute of Genomics for Crop Abiotic Stress Tolerance, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA.
¹⁰⁸ GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Geomicrobiology Section, Telegrafenberg, 14473, Potsdam, Germany.
¹⁰⁹ State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
¹¹⁰ Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
¹¹¹ State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
¹¹² Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education/Jilin Songnen, Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China.
¹¹³ Heilongjiang Xingkai Lake Wetland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station & Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, China.
¹¹⁴ Key Laboratory of Grassland Resources (Inner Mongolia Agricultural University), Ministry of Education, Hohhot, 010021, China.
¹¹⁵ School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
¹¹⁶ School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA.
¹¹⁷ Institute of Integrative Biology, Department of Environmental Systems Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. johan.vandenhoogen@usys.ethz.ch.

PMID: 41006295
PMCID: PMC12475190
DOI: 10.1038/s41597-025-05759-2

Abstract

Soil microbes drive ecosystem function and play a critical role in how ecosystems respond to global change. Research surrounding soil microbial communities has rapidly increased in recent decades, and substantial data relating to phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) and potential enzyme activity have been collected and analysed. However, studies have mostly been restricted to local and regional scales, and their accuracy and usefulness are limited by the extent of accessible data. Here we aim to improve data availability by collating a global database of soil PLFA and potential enzyme activity measurements from 12,258 georeferenced samples located across all continents, 5.1% of which have not previously been published. The database contains data relating to 113 PLFAs and 26 enzyme activities, and includes metadata such as sampling date, sample depth, and soil pH, total carbon, and total nitrogen. This database will help researchers in conducting both global- and local-scale studies to better understand soil microbial biomass and function.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

**Fig. 1**
The PLFA and enzyme activity database contains 12,258 samples from 3,743 locations. The purple colour gradient shows the degree to which climatic space is represented by the samples (scale of 0 to 1, see Technical Validation section). Grey regions do not have sufficient climate data available to evaluate climatic representation. The histogram and donut plots show number of samples (in parentheses) from the PLFA (blue) and enzyme (red) datasets collected in different years, from different continents, from different biomes, and within different categories of maximum sample depth. Only large segments of donut plots are labelled. Temp. = temperate.

**Fig. 2**
Variation in PLFA content across biomes. Boxes show median and interquartile range, with whiskers 1.5 times the interquartile range. Biomes are ordered according to the median value across all 14 PLFAs. Numbers show the sample size in each category.

**Fig. 3**
Variation in soil enzyme activity across biomes. Boxes show median and interquartile range, with whiskers 1.5 times the interquartile range. Biomes are ordered according to the median value across all five enzyme activities. Numbers show the sample size in each category.

**Fig. 4**
The distribution of temperatures used to assay enzyme activity.

**Fig. 5**
Examples of countries that have data available for multiple years. Points are coloured according to the sampling year; points are grey where sampling year is unavailable. Text indicates the number of locations in each country, and the number of unique time points (year–month combinations) that samples were collected at.

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References

1. Crowther, T. W. et al. Scientists’ call to action: Microbes, planetary health, and the Sustainable Development Goals. Cell187, 5195–5216, 10.1016/j.cell.2024.07.051 (2024). - PubMed
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A global database of soil microbial phospholipid fatty acids and enzyme activities

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A global database of soil microbial phospholipid fatty acids and enzyme activities

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