Fig. 3: Drivers of microbial carbon use efficiency and its thermal sensitivity.
From: Thermal sensitivity of soil microbial carbon use efficiency across forest biomes
a, b Structural equation modeling showing the effects of climate, soil properties, carbon (C) quality, microbial community structure, and microbial C decomposition genes on microbial C use efficiency (CUE) measured at 20°C (CUE20) and its thermal sensitivity (CUET) respectively. Single-headed arrows indicate the hypothesized direction of causation, while the surrounding numbers and the arrow widths denote the corresponding standardized path coefficients. Blue and red arrows indicate significantly positive and negative effects (P < 0.05), respectively, while gray dashed arrows indicate insignificant effects (P > 0.05). Climate, soil properties, C quality, microbial community structure, and microbial C decomposition genes are the first components from the principal components analyzes using corresponding factors listed in the rectangles. MAT mean annual temperature; MAP mean annual precipitation; F:B fungi to bacteria ratio; Pro Proteobacteria; Mon Monosaccharides; Ami Aminosugars; Lip Lipids; Lig Lignin; GFI goodness fit index; CFI comparative fit index; SRMR standardized root mean square residual; ***, P < 0.001; **, P < 0.01; *, P < 0.05. The specific P values are showed in Supplementary Table 7 and 8.
