In our new paper in Communications Earth & Environment, we asked how the chemical composition of extractable organic matter shapes soil microbial carbon metabolism across soil systems.In the paper "Microbial carbon metabolism is linked to organic matter chemistry across soil systems," we investigated whether and how the chemical composition of extractable organic matter affects soil microbial growth and respiration, using a gradient of 33 temperate grassland soils. We show that biomass-normalized rates of growth and respiration are primarily linked to aliphatic compounds such as carbohydrate-, protein-, and amino sugar-like substances, and secondarily to unsaturated lignin-like compounds. Biomass-normalized respiration is positively linked to compounds with carbon in a reduced oxidation state, consistent with carbon-conserving catabolism. Biomass-normalized growth, by contrast, appears unrelated to the oxidation state of carbon, suggesting that other mechanisms besides energetic constraints govern microbial growth in aerobic soils.This paper is the result of a collaboration led by Daniel Wasner, a former postdoc in our lab, together with Oliver Lechtenfeld and Jan Kaesler (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research–UFZ) and Sebastian Doetterl (ETH Zurich). Congratulations!ReferencesWasner, D.; Lechtenfeld, O.J.; Kaesler, J.; Doetterl, S.; Aeppli, M. Microbial carbon metabolism is linked to organic matter chemistry across soil systems. Communications Earth & Environment, 2026, doi:10.1038/s43247-026-03835-y.