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Full catalog/Global_Microbial_Biomass_C_N_P_1264
Global_Microbial_Biomass_C_N_P_1264·v1·dataset

How much carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus live in soil microbes

A Compilation of Global Soil Microbial Biomass Carbon, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus Data
land NASA ORNL_CLOUD Level 3 multiple
In plain English

What it measures. How much carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus are locked up in the living microbes of soils around the world, alongside total soil carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, compiled from thousands of field measurements.

How it's made. Assembled from a survey of 315 published studies (3,422 data points) spanning the late 1970s to 2012, with site location, climate, and vegetation details added; this is a compiled database, not a satellite product.

How & where you'd use it. Supports research into soil health and the global cycling of carbon and nutrients through the tiny life that lives in soil.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › SOILS › CARBONLAND SURFACE › SOILS › NITROGENLAND SURFACE › SOILS › PHOSPHORUS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1977-11-16 → 2012-06-01
  • Measured byNOT APPLICABLE (NOT APPLICABLE)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 177.9, 79
  • Formatsmultiple
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

This data set provides the concentrations of soil microbial biomass carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus at biome and global scales. The data were compiled from a comprehensive survey of publications from the late 1970s to 2012 and include 3,422 data points from 315 papers. These data are from soil samples collected primarily at 0-15 cm depth with some from 0-30 cm. In addition, data were compiled for soil microbial biomass concentrations from soil profile samples to depths of 100 cm. Sampling site latitude and longitude were available for the majority of the samples that enabled assembling additional soil properties, site characteristics, vegetation distributions, biomes, and long-term climate data from several global sources of soil, land-cover, and climate data. These site attributes are included with the microbial biomass data. This data set contains two *.csv files of the soil microbial biomass C, N, P data. The first provides all compiled results emphasizing the full spatial extent of the data, while the second is a subset that provides only data from a series of profile samples emphasizing the vertical distribution of microbial biomass concentrations. There is a companion file, also in .csv format, of the references for the surveyed publications. A reference_number relates the data to the respective publication. The concentrations of soil microbial biomass, in combination with other soil databases, were used to estimate the global storage of soil microbial biomass C and N in 0-30 cm and 0-100 cm soil profiles. These storage estimates were combined with a spatial map of 12 major biomes (boreal forest, temperate coniferous forest, temperate broadleaf forest, tropical and subtropical forests, mixed forest, grassland, shrub, tundra, desert, natural wetland, cropland, and pasture) at 0.05-degree by 0.5-degree spatial resolution. The biome map and six estimates of C and N storage and C:N ration in soil microbial biomass are provided in a single netCDF format file.

Get the data

global_microbial_biomass_c_n_p_1264_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="Global_Microbial_Biomass_C_N_P_1264",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from ORNL_CLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.