Soil invertebrate diversity supports ecosystem multifunctionality along elevation gradients

IF 3.9 2区农林科学 Q1 AGRONOMY

Plant and Soil Pub Date : 2025-01-06 DOI:10.1007/s11104-024-07142-3

Xiao-Min Zeng, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Shuhai Wen, Jiao Feng, Wen Zhang, Qianggong Zhang, Yu-Rong Liu

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background and Aims

Mountain ecosystems are highly vulnerable to global changes. Soil biodiversity is critical for maintaining ecosystem multifunctionality, yet the contribution of soil invertebrate diversity in supporting multifunctionality in mountain ecosystems is poorly understood.

Methods

Here, we assessed the contribution of soil invertebrate diversity, including α-diversity (i.e., species richness) and β-diversity (i.e., community composition), in explaining multiple ecosystem functions (e.g., water regulation, soil carbon stocks, nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition, and pathogen control) along two independent elevation gradients of the Tibetan Plateau and Shennongjia Mountain in China.

Results

Our results showed that ecosystem multifunctionality gradually increased with increasing elevation. Significant linear relationships were observed between species richness and community composition of soil invertebrates and multifunctionality along the elevation gradients, with species richness explaining more variance in multifunctionality than community composition. Furthermore, the positive associations between soil invertebrate richness and ecosystem multifunctionality remained consistent and robust along the two elevation gradients after considering climate and soil environmental variables. Structural equation modeling further revealed that the relationships between soil invertebrate diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality were primarily linked to elevation-induced variations in soil properties such as C/N ratio and pH.

Conclusion

Our work highlights that the variation in soil invertebrate diversity along elevation gradients plays a critical role in supporting the multifunctionality of mountain ecosystems.

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来源期刊

Plant and Soil 农林科学-农艺学

CiteScore

8.20

自引率

8.20%

发文量

543

审稿时长

2.5 months

期刊介绍： Plant and Soil publishes original papers and review articles exploring the interface of plant biology and soil sciences, and that enhance our mechanistic understanding of plant-soil interactions. We focus on the interface of plant biology and soil sciences, and seek those manuscripts with a strong mechanistic component which develop and test hypotheses aimed at understanding underlying mechanisms of plant-soil interactions. Manuscripts can include both fundamental and applied aspects of mineral nutrition, plant water relations, symbiotic and pathogenic plant-microbe interactions, root anatomy and morphology, soil biology, ecology, agrochemistry and agrophysics, as long as they are hypothesis-driven and enhance our mechanistic understanding. Articles including a major molecular or modelling component also fall within the scope of the journal. All contributions appear in the English language, with consistent spelling, using either American or British English.