Throughout Earth's history, drought has been a common crisis in terrestrial ecosystems; in
human societies, it can cause famine, one of the Four Horsemen of the apocalypse. As the …

Salinization is one of the most serious land degradation problems facing world. Salinity
results in poor plant growth and low soil microbial activity due to osmotic stress and toxic …

Empirical evidence for the response of soil carbon cycling to the combined effects of
warming, drought and diversity loss is scarce. Microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) plays a …

Microbial nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) describes the partitioning of organic N taken up
between growth and the release of inorganic N to the environment (that is, N mineralization) …

Soil microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) is a crucial parameter that can be used to
evaluate the partitioning of soil carbon (C) between microbial growth and respiration …

Carbon (C) metabolism is at the core of ecosystem function. Decomposers play a critical role
in this metabolism as they drive soil C cycle by mineralizing organic matter to CO2. Their …

Carbon use efficiency (CUE) is a fundamental parameter for ecological models based on the
physiology of microorganisms. CUE determines energy and material flows to higher trophic …

Many studies have shown that the microbial biomass content in paddy soils is much higher
than that in upland soils, but a comprehensive review of the underlying mechanisms and …

The net primary production of the biosphere is consumed largely by microorganisms, whose
metabolism creates the trophic base for detrital foodwebs, drives element cycles, and …

Biota can be described in terms of elemental composition, expressed as an atomic ratio of
carbon: nitrogen: phosphorus (refs). The elemental stoichiometry of microoorganisms is …