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Soil biota diversity and plant diversity both contributed to ecosystem stability in grasslands |
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| Authors: | Liji Wu Huasong Chen Dima Chen Shaopeng Wang Ying Wu Bing Wang Shengen Liu Linyan Yue Jie Yu Yongfei Bai |
| Affiliation: | 1. College of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China Engineering Research Center of Eco-Environment in Three Gorges Reservoir Region of Ministry of Education, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China College of Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China;2. College of Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China;3. College of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China;4. Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing, China;5. Institute of Grassland Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hohhot, China;6. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China |
| 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: | diversity-stability relationship drylands Mongolian Plateau multiple trophic levels multiple-scale diversity normalized difference vegetation index temporal stability |