171042 20260505142649.0 doi 10.1038/s41467-026-70623-9 sideral 149174 ART-2026-149174 eng Wang, Hui Persistence and turnover of soil organic carbon in global drylands 2026 Reliable predictions of dryland carbon fluxes require understanding the persistence and turnover of soil organic carbon (SOC). We measure radiocarbon to quantify the age of SOC and CO2 released from soil respiration at 97 dryland sites across six continents. Here we show that bulk SOC contains little C fixed in the past 60 years, while respired CO2 originates from both bomb-derived recent C and millennia-old C, challenging the idea that old C is chemically or physically protected. Radiocarbon suggests mean ages of ~2100 years for bulk SOC and ~520 years for respired CO2, the latter far older than machine-learning (<50 years) or Earth system models predict. Aridity, net primary productivity, and SOC content are dominant predictors for radiocarbon signatures, with abrupt shifts to older C beyond an aridity threshold of ~0.87. Our findings underscore the need to incorporate the vulnerability of older carbon into models and land management strategies. Access copy available to the general public Unrestricted info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/647038/EU/Biological feedbacks and ecosystem resilience under global change: a new perspective on dryland desertification/BIODESERT This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No H2020 647038-BIODESERT info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess by https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.es info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Maestre, Fernando T. Lu, Nan Zhao, Guang Zhang, Yangjian Asensio, Sergio Bramble, De Shorn E. Chen, Weiliang Dippold, Michaela A. Eldridge, David J. Gaitán, Juan J. García-Gómez, Miguel Gozalo, Beatriz Gross, Nicolas Guirado, Emilio Le Bagousse-Pinguet, Yoann Martínez-Valderrama, Jaime Mendoza, Betty J. Ochoa, Victoria Plaza, César Saiz, Hugo Universidad de Zaragoza Schrumpf, Marion Sierra, Carlos A. Tangarife-Escobar, Andrés Valencia, Enrique von Fromm, Sophie F. Wang, Cong Wang, Kai Wang, Yunqiang Zaehle, Sönke Fu, Bojie Trumbore, Susan Huang, Jianbei 5011 220 Universidad de Zaragoza Dpto. CC.Agrar.y Medio Natural Área Ecología 17, 1 (2026), [10 pp.] Nature communications 2041-1723 3524380 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/171042/files/texto_completo.pdf Versión publicada 2613254 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/171042/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon icon Versión publicada oai:zaguan.unizar.es:171042 articulos driver 2026-05-05-13:36:22 ARTICLE