A global dataset of soil organic carbon mineralization in response to incubation temperature changes

作者：S. S. Zhang, Mingming Wang, Jinyang Zheng, Zhongkui Luo · 发表于：Earth system science data · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.5194/essd-18-131-2026 · 研究领域：Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics、Polar Research and Ecology、CO2 Sequestration and Geologic Interactions

Abstract. Microbial decomposition of soil organic carbon (SOC) is a major source of atmospheric CO2 and a key component of climate–carbon feedbacks. Understanding how SOC mineralization responds to temperature is essential for improving climate projections. Here, we compiled a global dataset of laboratory incubation experiments measuring SOC mineralization across diverse soils and temperature regimes. The dataset reveals that 84 % of samples originated from surface soils (0–30 cm), and 50 % of incubations lasted fewer than 50 d. Incubation temperatures ranged from −10 to 60 °C, with temperature intervals used to estimate temperature sensitivity (Q10) spanning 2–40 °C; notably, 81 % of Q10 estimates were based on intervals exceeding 5 °C. Moreover, in 61 % of cases, the lower incubation temperature for Q10 estimation differed from the mean annual temperature at the sampling site by more than 5 °C, indicating a mismatch with in situ conditions. Our analysis highlights critical gaps in current experimental designs, particularly the underrepresentation of subsoils (>30 cm) and the use of temperature ranges that deviate from field conditions. We further evaluated the ability of 16 temperature response functions used in 69 land surface and/or carbon models to capture SOC mineralization patterns. Most models failed to reproduce empirical temperature response, especially at higher temperatures, albeit multi-term exponential functions showed relatively better performance. By coupli...