Factors controlling soil organic carbon content in wetlands at multiple scales and assessment of the universality of estimation equations: A mega-data study

The factors controlling soil organic carbon (SOC) content in wetlands need to be identified to estimate the global stores of SOC. Although there have been a large number of small-scale studies of the local patterns of SOC content, global studies are still required. We used a random forest algorithm and other statistical approaches to determine the controls on the SOC content in wetlands at global, continental, and national scales based on the Harmonized World Soil Database and field data. The results showed that, at the three scales explored, the soil cation exchange capacity and bulk density were the main controls on the SOC content in wetlands. Moreover, equations for estimating global SOC content were established. To assess the universality of SOC content estimation equations, the soil properties were considered as a “community” and the normalized stochasticity ratio (NST) was used to assess the stochasticity in the assembly of soil “communities”. The results showed that, globally, the interaction of these factors was stochastic in the “community” composed of the controllers and SOC. The reason for this result might be that microbes were not considered in the equation. Therefore, the weighted abundance of related microbes (WARM) was therefore recommended in the estimation of SOC. With NST and WARM factors, we found that microbes play a key role in increasing the determinacy of SOC estimation equations in wetlands with less anthropogenic contamination. Our findings show that when microbial impacts are taken into account, the patterns of SOC content in pristine wetlands are more universal. Our newly established equations for estimating global SOC content are crucial in projecting changes in wetland SOC, and the two factors indicated in this study favor the universality for SOC content estimation.