Soil biota diversity and plant diversity both contributed to ecosystem stability in grasslands

Abstract

Understanding the effects of diversity on ecosystem stability in the context of global change has become an important goal of recent ecological research. However, the effects of diversity at multiple scales and trophic levels on ecosystem stability across environmental gradients remain unclear. Here, we conducted a field survey of α-, β-, and γ-diversity of plants and soil biota (bacteria, fungi, and nematodes) and estimated the temporal ecosystem stability of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in 132 plots on the Mongolian Plateau. After climate and soil environmental variables were controlled for, both the α- and β-diversity of plants and soil biota (mainly via nematodes) together with precipitation explained most variation in ecosystem stability. These findings evidence that the diversity of both soil biota and plants contributes to ecosystem stability. Model predictions of the future effects of global changes on terrestrial ecosystem stability will require field observations of diversity of both plants and soil biota.

Keywords: Mongolian Plateau; diversity-stability relationship; drylands; multiple trophic levels; multiple-scale diversity; normalized difference vegetation index; temporal stability.