Microbial Respiration
Benchmark Value
Scoring Curve
This curve shows how a field measurement for this indicator would score across all available benchmark forms in this context. The scoring engine uses 4 benchmarks together — the Point form drives the primary score, while 3 guard(s) constrain the result.
Contributing Benchmarks
Evidence & Context
Lower Critical Threshold: A ~50% reduction from this benchmark (i.e., <45 mg CO₂-C/kg/day) indicates significant functional impairment, consistent with degradation from a conservation to a production agriculture state.
Microbial respiration, the flux of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the soil surface resulting from microbial metabolic activity.
A microbial respiration rate below 45 mg/kg/day signals significant soil function loss, indicating degradation from conservation rainforest to agricultural land.
This threshold is based on evidence from land-use change and disturbance studies showing a halving of microbial biomass and corresponding drop in respiration function, indicating significant ecological stress.
Sources (1)
Reforestation, carbon sequestration and relationships between soil attributes in the Wet Tropics of Australia (Schmidt et al., 2014)
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