Fig. 2: Soil bacterial abundance varies in relation to carbon input, temperature and soil depth.
From: Soil bacterial diversity mediated by microscale aqueous-phase processes across biomes
a Bacterial cell density at soil-carrying capacity as a function of net primary productivity (NPP) with model estimates sensitive to mean annual temperature (MAT) (solid lines). Estimates are compared with measured data of microbial biomass18 converted to bacterial cell density and are grouped by temperature (MAT ≤ 0 °C, 0 °C > MAT ≤ 15 °C, MAT > 15 °C). Each group’s median is reported in the figure legend in blue, green and orange, respectively. The distributions of cell densities are indicated for each temperature group as the central 50 and 95% range. b Variations of bacterial cell density with soil depth. The lognormal fit provides bounds on cell density (carrying capacity) for intermediate MAT (solid line) and for the central 95% of NPP (shaded area). Observed estimates of cell density are reported for their average sampling depth. Most samples were taken above 10 cm as shown in the boxplot. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
