Microbial diversity regulates ecosystem multifunctionality during natural secondary succession

Natural forest succession after disturbances is one of the most important restoration strategies. However, the responses of ecosystem multifunctionality during natural forest succession remains poorly understood in forest ecosystem.

Here we evaluated how the ecosystem multifunctionality including nutrient cycling, carbon stocks, water regulation, decomposition, wood production and symbiosis develops using a chronosequence, and identified the key factors contributing to the variations in the ecosystem multifunctionality during natural forest succession.

We provide evidence that the ecosystem multifunctionality gradually increased along with succession stages. The individual functions of carbon stocks and water regulation also exhibited increasing patterns with stand development. The microbial diversity were more principal factors than plant diversity and soil properties for the explanation of changes in the ecosystem multifunctionality. The regression analysis showed that the diver...