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Meta-analysis shows that planting nitrogen-fixing species increases soil organic carbon stock

Nature Ecology & Evolution (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Nitrogen (N)-fixing species are widely used in forestation and agriculture. The effects of planting N-fixing species on soil organic carbon (SOC) stock, however, remain uncertain, limiting policy development and their application towards a possible climate change mitigation strategy. Here we conduct a global meta-analysis of 385 datapoints from 136 studies comparing SOC stock with planting N-fixing versus non-N-fixing species. Planting N-fixing species increases SOC stock by 16% compared with non-N-fixing species. This SOC increase is closely accompanied by soil N increases, with an average accumulation of 7.8 g of SOC per gram of soil N increase. Climate mediates SOC responses, with greater SOC sequestration observed in drier and warmer regions, particularly in the tropics. We estimate that an additional increase of 0.29–0.75 PgC yr−1 in global SOC stock could be achieved by adopting N-fixing species for forestation, agriculture and regeneration of marginal lands, highlighting their potential for climate change mitigation.

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Fig. 1: Global distribution of the selected studies testing the effects of planting N-fixing species on SOC stock in this meta-analysis.
Fig. 2: Effects of planting N-fixing species on SOC stock and the key predictors influencing these effects.
Fig. 3: Planting strategies mediate the effects of N-fixing species on SOC stock.
Fig. 4: Global maps predicting absolute changes in soil organic SOC stock (MgC ha−1) by planting N-fixing species.

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Data availability

The data used in the meta-analysis are available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25458238 (ref. 194). Global maps of planted forests and cropland were obtained from SDPT v.1.0 (https://www.wri.org/research/spatial-database-planted-trees-sdpt-version-10) and GLAD (https://glad.umd.edu/dataset/croplands), respectively. Global maps of SOC and soil N stocks at 0–30 cm were obtained from ISRIC Data Hub (https://data.isric.org). Global maps of MAT and MAP were obtained from WorldClim v.2 (https://worldclim.org). Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

The code used in this study is available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25458238 (ref. 194).

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank X. Chen and Z. Ma for their suggestions on data analysis. This work was supported by Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2025A1515011004), Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (JCYJ20220530150015035), National Natural Science Foundation of China (42367035, 32471685, 42361144886) and the Shaanxi Province Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholar (2024JC-JCQN-32).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Ecology, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, China

    Xibin Sun, Yi Yang, Yixue Hong & Hao Chen

  2. State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, China

    Ji Chen

  3. Guanzhong Plain Ecological Environment Change and Comprehensive Treatment National Observation and Research Station, Xi’an, China

    Ji Chen

  4. Institute of Global Environmental Change, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, School of Human Settlements and Civil Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

    Ji Chen

  5. Department of Soil Science of Temperate Ecosystems, Department of Agricultural Soil Science, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    Yakov Kuzyakov

  6. Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Gabriel W. D. Ferreira

  7. Department of Biology, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario (ceiA3), Campus del Rio San Pedro, IVAGRO, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain

    Raúl Ochoa-Hueso

  8. Institute of Ecology, Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Carsten W. Mueller

  9. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Carsten W. Mueller

  10. Key Laboratory of Environment Change and Resources Use in Beibu Gulf/Guangxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Intelligent Simulation, Nanning Normal University, Nanning, China

    Zhenchuan Wang

  11. Guangxi Key Laboratory of Karst Ecological Processes and Services, Huanjiang Observation and Research Station Karst Ecosystems, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huanjiang, China

    Dejun Li

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Contributions

X. S. and H. C. designed research and compiled and analysed data. X. S. wrote the initial draft with significant contribution from H. C. and J. C. Y.K., Y.Y., G.W.D.F., R.O.-H., C.W.M., Z.W., Y.H. and D.L. contributed to the revision of the paper.

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Correspondence to Ji Chen or Hao Chen.

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Supplementary Data 1

A list of identified invasive N-fixing species in different climate zones.

Supplementary Data 2

Source data for Supplementary figures and tables.

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Source Data Fig. 1

Source data for Fig. 1.

Source Data Fig. 2

Source data for Fig. 2a–d.

Source Data Fig. 3

Source data for Fig. 3.

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Sun, X., Chen, J., Kuzyakov, Y. et al. Meta-analysis shows that planting nitrogen-fixing species increases soil organic carbon stock. Nat Ecol Evol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02861-x

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