Microbial communities are associated with indicators of soil surface condition across a continental gradient

Soil microbes support multiple ecosystem functions in woody biomes and are regulated by both plant communities and soil properties. While most microbes reside in the uppermost soil layer, we have a poor understanding of how the condition of the soil surface affects soil microbes across different woody biomes. This knowledge is important because it could provide a cost-effective means of predicting the extent to which different soil surface types...