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Soil community history strengthens belowground multitrophic functioning across plant diversity levels in a grassland experiment

Angelos Amyntas,N. Eisenhauer,Stefan Scheu,B. Klarner,Kassimira Ilieva-Makulec,Anna-Maria Madaj,Benoit Gauzens,Jingyi Li,Anton M. Potapov,B. Rosenbaum,Leonardo Bassi,Pamela Medina van Berkum,Ulrich Brose

Published 2024 in Nature Communications

ABSTRACT

Biodiversity experiments revealed that plant diversity loss can decrease ecosystem functions across trophic levels. To address why such biodiversity-function relationships strengthen over time, we established experimental mesocosms replicating a gradient in plant species richness across treatments of shared versus non-shared history of (1) the plant community and (2) the soil fauna community. After 4 months, we assessed the multitrophic functioning of soil fauna via biomass stocks and energy fluxes across the food webs. We find that soil community history significantly enhanced belowground multitrophic function via changes in biomass stocks and community-average body masses across the food webs. However, variation in plant diversity and plant community history had unclear effects. Our findings underscore the importance of long-term community assembly processes for soil fauna-driven ecosystem function, with species richness and short-term plant adaptations playing a minimal role. Disturbances that disrupt soil community stability may hinder fauna-driven ecosystem functions, while recovery may require several years. Plant diversity and community history can jointly influence ecosystem functions, including those performed by soil fauna. This study shows that soil community history, rather than plant diversity or short-term plant adaptations, plays a crucial role in enhancing belowground ecosystem function.

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