Stoichiometry of soil microbial biomass carbon and microbial biomass nitrogen in China's temperate and alpine grasslands

Across all ecosystems, climatic and edaphic factors modify decomposition processes. According to the graph, we all known that the climatic and edaphic factors affect the microbial biomass (direct effects), and the climatic factors play role in the activities of microbial biomass via soil factors (indirect effects). Meanwhile, microbes release carbon dioxide through respiration. It is noteworthy that SOM, DOM and microbial biomass present relative complicated relationships, and microbial biomass provides the enzymes to decompose the SOM, and uptake the decomposition product to increase microorganisms. In addition, there are the uptake and mineralization process between microbial biomass and mineral nutrients (e.g. nitrogen and phosphorus). SOM and DOM represent soil organic matter and dissolved organic matter, respectively.245