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.

Agroecosystem Sustainability Center Urbana IL 61801 USA

Agroscope Viticulture 8820 Wädenswil Switzerland

Alliance Bioversity International CIAT Bengaluru India

Animal Ecology Group University of Vigo E 36310 Vigo Spain

Benevita Biotech Adelaide Australia

Biological and Environmental Sciences Faculty of Natural Sciences University of Stirling FK9 4LA Stirling UK

Biology Department University of New Mexico Albuquerque NM 87131 USA

BioTreaT GmbH Technikerstrasse 21 6020 Innsbruck Austria

CEBAS CSIC Department of Soil and Water Conservation Campus Universitario de Espinardo 30100 Murcia Spain

CENAC APN CONICET Bariloche Argentina

Center for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science University of Vienna 1030 Vienna Austria

Centre de Recherche sur la Biodiversité et l'Environnement Toulouse France

Centre for Ecosystem Science School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences UNSW Sydney 2052 NSW Australia

Centre for Environmental Sciences Hasselt University Campus Diepenbeek Agoralaan Building D Units AB B 3590 Diepenbeek Belgium

Centre for Functional Ecology Associate Laboratory TERRA Department of Life Sciences University of Coimbra 3000 456 Coimbra Portugal

Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use University of Göttingen Büsgenweg 1 37077 Göttingen Germany

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

College of Agronomy Hunan Agricultural University Changsha 410128 P R China

College of Resources and Environment University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China

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

CREA Research Center for Viticulture and Enology Gorizia Italy

Departamento de Ecología Universidad de Alicante Alicante Spain

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

Department of Agroecology Aarhus University Slagelse 4200 Denmark

Department of Biological and Environmental Science University of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä Finland

Department of Biology and Center for Volatile Interactions University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark

Department of Biology College of Science Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Riyadh Saudi Arabia

Department of Biology IVAGRO University of Cádiz Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario Campus del Rio San Pedro 11510 Puerto Real Cádiz Spain

Department of Biology Lund University SE 223 62 Lund Sweden

Department of Biology Science Center Federal University of Ceará UFC Fortaleza CE 60440 900 Brazil

Department of Biology Stanford University Stanford California USA

Department of Botany University of Dhaka Dhaka 1000 Bangladesh

Department of Crop Sciences University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Urbana IL 61801 USA

Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences The University of Manchester Manchester M13 9PT UK

Department of Earth Sciences Freie Universität Berlin 12249 Berlin Germany

Department of Earth System Science Stanford University Stanford California USA

Department of Ecology and Environmental Science Umeå University Umeå Sweden

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Princeton University Princeton NJ USA

Department of Ecology Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Uppsala Ulls väg 16 756 51 Sweden

Department of Evolution Ecology and Behaviour University of Liverpool Crown street Liverpool L69 7BE UK

Department of Experimental Architecture Integrative Design Extremes University of Innsbruck Technikerstrasse 21 Innsbruck A 6020 Austria

Department of Natural Resources and the Environment University of New Hampshire Durham NH 03824 USA

Department of Plant and Soil Sciences University of Kentucky Lexington KY 40546 0312 USA

Department of Soil Water and Climate University of Minnesota 1991 Upper Buford Circle St Paul MN 55108 USA

Department of Terrestrial Ecology Netherlands Institute of Ecology P O Box 50 6700 AB Wageningen the Netherlands

Department of Zoology College of Science King Saud University Riyadh Saudi Arabia

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI 48109 USA

Environmental Science Center Qatar University Doha Qatar

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

Faculty of Agriculture and Life Science Hirosaki University Bunkyocho 1 Hirosaki 036 8560 Aomori Japan

Field Crop Systems and Plant Nutrition Agroscope Route de Duillier 60 CH 1260 Nyon Switzerland

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle Jena Leipzig Puschstrasse 4 04103 Leipzig Germany

GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences Geomicrobiology Section Telegrafenberg 14473 Potsdam Germany

GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences Interface Geochemistry Section Telegrafenberg 14473 Potsdam Germany

GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences Organic Geochemistry Section Telegrafenberg 14473 Potsdam Germany

Heilongjiang Xingkai Lake Wetland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station and Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology Chinese Academy of Sciences Changchun 130102 China

High Meadows Environmental Institute Princeton University Princeton NJ USA

ICF 201 Mission St Suite 1500 San Francisco CA 94105 USA

INIBIOMA CONICET Universidad Nacional del Comahue Bariloche Argentina

INRAE Bordeaux Sciences Agro UMR 1391 Interaction Soil Plant Atmosphere 71 avenue Edouard Bourlaux 33882 Villenave d'Ornon cedex France

Institute of Agronomy Department of Agricultural Sciences BOKU University 3430 Tulln an der Donau Austria

Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research University of Colorado Boulder CO USA

Institute of Biology Ecology Group Humboldt Universität zu Berlin Philippstraße 13 10115 Berlin Germany

Institute of Biology Leipzig University Puschstrasse 4 04103 Leipzig Germany

Institute of Botany Ulm University 89081 Ulm Germany

Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences University of Tartu 2 J Liivi St 50409 Tartu Estonia

Institute of Genomics for Crop Abiotic Stress Tolerance Department of Plant and Soil Sciences Texas Tech University Lubbock TX 79409 USA

Institute of Integrative Biology Department of Environmental Systems Sciences ETH Zurich Zurich Switzerland

Institute of Microbiology Center for Functional Genomics of Microbes University of Greifswald 17489 Greifswald Germany

Institute of Soil Research Department of Ecosystem Management Climate and Biodiversity BOKU University 1190 Vienna Austria

Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation University of Hohenheim D 70593 Stuttgart Hohenheim Germany

Instituto de Ciencias Agrarias Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas Serrano 115 bis 28006 Madrid Spain

Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio Ramón Margalef Universidad de Alicante Alicante Spain

Instituto Univeritario de Investigación en Olivar y Aceite de Oliva INUO Universidad de Jaén Jaén Spain

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology University of Göttingen Untere Karspüle 2 37073 Göttingen Germany

Key Laboratory of Grassland Resources Ministry of Education Hohhot 010021 China

Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology Ministry of Education Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station Northeast Normal University Changchun 130024 China

Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems South China Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou China

Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine Univ Grenoble Alpes Univ Savoie Mont Blanc CNRS LECA Grenoble France

Laboratorio de Biodiversidad y Funcionamiento Ecosistémico Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla Av Reina Mercedes 10 E 41012 Sevilla Spain

Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Videnska 1083 14200 Praha 4 Prague Czech Republic

Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Biogeography Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Videnska 1083 14200 Praha 4 Prague Czech Republic

Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster University Lancaster LA1 4YQ UK

Melnikov Permafrost Institute Siberian Branch Russian Academy of Sciences 677010 Yakutsk Russia

Microbiology Laboratories Australia Adelaide Australia

Microbiology Laboratories Australia St Marys 5042 Australia

Microbiome Network and Department of Agricultural Biology Colorado State University Fort Collins CO 80523 USA

Mycology and Microbiology Center University of Tartu Tartu Estonia

Natural History Museum of Tartu University 46 Vanemuise St 51014 Tartu Estonia

Natural Resources Institute Finland Luke Latokartanonkaari 9 00790 Helsinki Finland

O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs Indiana University Bloomington IN 47405 USA

Plant Soil Interactions Agroecology and Environment Agroscope Reckenholzstrasse 191 8046 Zurich Switzerland

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources University of Vermont Burlington VT USA

School for Environment and Sustainability University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI USA

School of Environmental and Natural Sciences Bangor University Gwynedd LL57 2DG UK

School of Geography University of Leeds Leeds LS2 9JT UK

School of the Earth Ocean and Environment University of South Carolina Columbia SC 29208 USA

Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre Functional Environmental Genomics Frankfurt Germany

Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Gorlitz Am Museum 1 D 02826 Görlitz Germany

Singapore Botanic Gardens National Parks Board Singapore 259569 Republic of Singapore

Soil Microbial Ecology Group Universidade Federal do Piauí 64019 550 Teresina Piauí Brazil

State Key Laboratory of Mycology Institute of Microbiology Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100101 China

State Key Laboratory of Regional and Urban Ecology Research Center for Eco Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China

State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System Environment and Resources Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100101 China

State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change Institute of Botany Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China

Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS Federal Research Center Krasnoyarsk Science Center SB RAS Krasnoyarsk 660036 Russia

Texas Tech University Department of Plant and Soil Science Lubbock TX 79409 USA

The Nature Conservancy in Illinois Nachusa Grasslands Franklin Grove IL USA

UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Library Avenue Bailrigg Lancaster LA1 4AP UK

University of Coimbra Centre for Mechanical Engineering Materials and Processes ARISE Department of Life Sciences 3000 456 Coimbra Portugal

University of Coimbra Department of Geography Colégio de São Jerónimo Largo D Dinis 3004 530 Coimbra Portugal

University of São Paulo ESALQ USP Av Pádua Dias 11 13418 900 Piracicaba SP Brazil

US Army ERDC Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory Hanover NH 03755 USA

US Geological Survey Geology Minerals Energy and Geophysics Science Center Menlo Park California USA

Valli Sustainability Research and Education Foundation Kanchipuram India

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Crowther, T. W. PubMed

Caldwell, B. A. Enzyme activities as a component of soil biodiversity: A review.

Frostegård, Å., Tunlid, A. & Bååth, E. Microbial biomass measured as total lipid phosphate in soils of different organic content.

Semenov, M. V. Metabarcoding and Metagenomics in Soil Ecology Research: Achievements, Challenges, and Prospects.

Ma, B. PubMed PMC

Tedersoo, L.

Thompson, L. R. PubMed PMC

Větrovský, T. PubMed PMC

Siles, J. A., Gómez-Pérez, R., Vera, A., García, C. & Bastida, F. A comparison among EL-FAME, PLFA, and quantitative PCR methods to detect changes in the abundance of soil bacteria and fungi.

Frostegård, Å., Tunlid, A. & Bååth, E. Use and misuse of PLFA measurements in soils.

Willers, C., Jansen van Rensburg, P. J. & Claassens, S. Phospholipid fatty acid profiling of microbial communities–a review of interpretations and recent applications. PubMed

Bligh, E. G. & Dyer, W. J. A rapid method of total lipid extraction and purification. PubMed

Ruess, L. & Chamberlain, P. M. The fat that matters: Soil food web analysis using fatty acids and their carbon stable isotope signature.

Zelles, L. Fatty acid patterns of phospholipids and lipopolysaccharides in the characterisation of microbial communities in soil: a review.

Zhang, Y.

Joergensen, R. G. & Emmerling, C. Methods for evaluating human impact on soil microorganisms based on their activity, biomass, and diversity in agricultural soils.

Klamer, M. & Bååth, E. Estimation of conversion factors for fungal biomass determination in compost using ergosterol and PLFA 18:2ω6,9.

Baldrian, P.

Frostegård, Å., Bååth, E. & Tunlio, A. Shifts in the structure of soil microbial communities in limed forests as revealed by phospholipid fatty acid analysis.

Burns, R. G. Enzyme activity in soil: Location and a possible role in microbial ecology.

Skujiņš, J. & Burns, R. G. Extracellular Enzymes in Soil. PubMed

German, D. P.

Wallenstein, M. D. & Weintraub, M. N. Emerging tools for measuring and modeling the

Dick, R. P.

Tabatabai, M. A. & Bremner, J. M. Use of p-nitrophenyl phosphate for assay of soil phosphatase activity.

Maestre, F. T. & Eisenhauer, N. Recommendations for establishing global collaborative networks in soil ecology. PubMed PMC

He, L.

Serna-Chavez, H. M., Fierer, N. & van Bodegom, P. M. Global drivers and patterns of microbial abundance in soil.

Wan, X., Chen, X., Huang, Z. & Chen, H. Y. H. Global soil microbial biomass decreases with aridity and land-use intensification.

Xu, X., Thornton, P. E. & Post, W. M. A global analysis of soil microbial biomass carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in terrestrial ecosystems.

Smith, G. R., Crowther, T. W., Eisenhauer, N. & van den Hoogen, J. Building a global database of soil microbial biomass and function: a call for collaboration. PubMed PMC

None

Hu, L.

McGuire, K. L., Zak, D. R., Edwards, I. P., Blackwood, C. B. & Upchurch, R. Slowed decomposition is biotically mediated in an ectomycorrhizal, tropical rain forest. PubMed

Ushio, M., Wagai, R., Balser, T. C. & Kitayama, K. Variations in the soil microbial community composition of a tropical montane forest ecosystem: Does tree species matter?

Wang, X., Sasaki, A., Toda, M. & Nakatsubo, T. Changes in soil microbial community and activity in warm temperate forests invaded by moso bamboo (

Xu, M.

Zhou, L.

Tummers, B. DataThief III. https://datathief.org/ (2006).

Schutter, M. E. & Dick, R. P. Comparison of Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) Methods for Characterizing Microbial Communities.

Li, C., Cano, A., Acosta-Martinez, V., Veum, K. S. & Moore-Kucera, J. A comparison between fatty acid methyl ester profiling methods (PLFA and EL-FAME) as soil health indicators.

Zizka, A.

Dinerstein, E. PubMed PMC

Hijmans, R. terra: Spatial Data Analysis. R package version 1.7-78, https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=terra (2024).

Massicotte, P. & South, A. rnaturalearth: World Map Data from Natural Earth. R package version 1.0.1, https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=rnaturalearth (2023).

Pebesma, E. & Bivand, R.

R Core Team. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. URL https://www.R-project.org/ (2024).

van Galen, L. G. Data for “A global database of soil microbial phospholipid fatty acids and enzyme activities”. 10.6084/m9.figshare.28684586 (2025). PubMed PMC

van den Hoogen, J. PubMed

Karger, D. N. PubMed PMC

Cameron, E. K. PubMed PMC

Lembrechts, J. J. PubMed PMC

Poggio, L.

Tuanmu, M.-N. & Jetz, W. A global 1-km consensus land-cover product for biodiversity and ecosystem modelling.

Koldasbayeva, D. PubMed PMC

Faust, K., Lahti, L., Gonze, D., de Vos, W. M. & Raes, J. Metagenomics meets time series analysis: unraveling microbial community dynamics. PubMed

Joergensen, R. G. Phospholipid fatty acids in soil—drawbacks and future prospects.

Ngosong, C., Gabriel, E. & Ruess, L. Use of the Signature Fatty Acid 16:1ω5 as a Tool to Determine the Distribution of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in Soil. PubMed PMC

Olsson, P. A. & Lekberg, Y. A critical review of the use of lipid signature molecules for the quantification of arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi.

Allison, S. D., Romero-Olivares, A. L., Lu, Y., Taylor, J. W. & Treseder, K. K. Temperature sensitivities of extracellular enzyme V PubMed

Fraser, T. D., Duddigan, S., Diaz, A., Green, I. & Tibbett, M. Optimizing pH for Soil Enzyme Assays Reveals Important Biochemical Functions in Low pH Soil.

Margenot, A. J., Nakayama, Y. & Parikh, S. J. Methodological recommendations for optimizing assays of enzyme activities in soil samples.

Puissant, J.

Wallenstein, M., Allison, S. D., Ernakovich, J., Steinweg, J. M. & Sinsabaugh, R. in

Malcolm, R. E. Assessment of phosphatase activity in soils.

Bell, C. W. PubMed PMC

Tabatabai, M. A. in

Li, C.

Li, C. & Margenot, A. J. Apparent kinetic properties of soil phosphomonoesterase and β-glucosidase are disparately influenced by pH.

Wade, J.

Margenot, A. J. & Wade, J. Getting the basics right on soil enzyme activities: A comment on Sainju

Nannipieri, P., Trasar-Cepeda, C. & Dick, R. P. Soil enzyme activity: a brief history and biochemistry as a basis for appropriate interpretations and meta-analysis.

Fanin, N.

Cosentino, F. & Maiorano, L. Is geographic sampling bias representative of environmental space?

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