Figure legends
Fig.
1 Conceptual diagram describing biologically driven soil organic (SOC)
and inorganic carbon (SIC) cycling. SOC sources from plant litter and
root exudates and SIC sources from respired CO2 among
microorganisms and roots are highlighted (left diagram); and we
hypothesize that microbial necromass play a role in SIC-to-SOC
transition in accordance with the microbial carbon pump theory (right
diagram).
Fig. 2 C components (i.e., soil inorganic carbon [SIC],
soil organic carbon [SOC], and microbial residues) of coastal saline
soils (n=94) in Yellow River Delta. (a ) The shifts in SIC, SOC,
and microbial residue levels along a natural salinity gradient;
(b ) associations among SOC, microbial residues, and SIC;
(c ) structural equation modeling examining the underlying
causal relationships among SIC, microbial residues, and SOC.