Aridity-driven shift in biodiversity–soil multifunctionality relationships

Weigang Hu, Jinzhi Ran, Longwei Dong, Qiajun Du, Mingfei Ji, Shuran Yao, Yuan Sun, Chunmei Gong, Qingqing Hou, Haiyang Gong, Renfei Chen, Jingli Lu, Shubin Xie, Zhiqiang Wang, Heng Huang, Xiaowei Li, Junlan Xiong, Rui Xia, Maohong Wei, Dongmin Zhao, Yahui Zhang, Jinhui Li, Huixia Yang, Xiaoting Wang, Yan Deng, Ying Sun, Hailing Li, Liang Zhang, Qipeng Chu, Xinwei Li, Muhammad Aqeel, Abdul Manan, Muhammad Adnan Akram, Xianghan Liu, Rui Li, Fan Li, Chen Hou, Jianquan Liu, Jin-Sheng He, Lizhe An, Richard D. Bardgett (), Bernhard Schmid () and Jianming Deng ()
Additional contact information
Weigang Hu: Lanzhou University
Jinzhi Ran: Lanzhou University
Longwei Dong: Lanzhou University
Qiajun Du: Lanzhou University
Mingfei Ji: Lanzhou University
Shuran Yao: Lanzhou University
Yuan Sun: Lanzhou University
Chunmei Gong: Northwest A&F University
Qingqing Hou: Lanzhou University
Haiyang Gong: Lanzhou University
Renfei Chen: Lanzhou University
Jingli Lu: Lanzhou University
Shubin Xie: Lanzhou University
Zhiqiang Wang: Lanzhou University
Heng Huang: Lanzhou University
Xiaowei Li: Lanzhou University
Junlan Xiong: Lanzhou University
Rui Xia: Lanzhou University
Maohong Wei: Lanzhou University
Dongmin Zhao: Lanzhou University
Yahui Zhang: Lanzhou University
Jinhui Li: Lanzhou University
Huixia Yang: Lanzhou University
Xiaoting Wang: Lanzhou University
Yan Deng: Lanzhou University
Ying Sun: Lanzhou University
Hailing Li: Lanzhou University
Liang Zhang: Lanzhou University
Qipeng Chu: Lanzhou University
Xinwei Li: Lanzhou University
Muhammad Aqeel: Lanzhou University
Abdul Manan: Lanzhou University
Muhammad Adnan Akram: Lanzhou University
Xianghan Liu: Lanzhou University
Rui Li: Lanzhou University
Fan Li: Lanzhou University
Chen Hou: Missouri University of Science and Technology
Jianquan Liu: Lanzhou University
Jin-Sheng He: Lanzhou University
Lizhe An: Lanzhou University
Richard D. Bardgett: The University of Manchester
Bernhard Schmid: University of Zurich
Jianming Deng: Lanzhou University

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Relationships between biodiversity and multiple ecosystem functions (that is, ecosystem multifunctionality) are context-dependent. Both plant and soil microbial diversity have been reported to regulate ecosystem multifunctionality, but how their relative importance varies along environmental gradients remains poorly understood. Here, we relate plant and microbial diversity to soil multifunctionality across 130 dryland sites along a 4,000 km aridity gradient in northern China. Our results show a strong positive association between plant species richness and soil multifunctionality in less arid regions, whereas microbial diversity, in particular of fungi, is positively associated with multifunctionality in more arid regions. This shift in the relationships between plant or microbial diversity and soil multifunctionality occur at an aridity level of ∼0.8, the boundary between semiarid and arid climates, which is predicted to advance geographically ∼28% by the end of the current century. Our study highlights that biodiversity loss of plants and soil microorganisms may have especially strong consequences under low and high aridity conditions, respectively, which calls for climate-specific biodiversity conservation strategies to mitigate the effects of aridification.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25641-0 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-25641-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25641-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().