Data for: Plant-soil biota interactions explain shifts in plant community composition under global change

1. Plant-soil biota interactions play a crucial role in the assembly of
plant communities and the maintenance of plant species diversity. However,
few studies have tested how the effect of soil biota on plant species and
communities depend on environmental context and whether shifts in plant
community composition caused by environmental change are associated with
variation in plant-soil biota interactions. 2. We combined a field
experiment in a Tibetan alpine meadow and a greenhouse experiment with
factorial combinations of nitrogen (N) enrichment and warming to examine
the role of plant-soil biota interactions in plant community dynamics. 3.
The results showed that plant relative abundances were negatively
correlated with the net effects of soil biota on plant growth but only
under ambient field conditions. Warming and N-enrichment alleviated the
negative soil biota effects in the greenhouse, and changed plant community
composition and reduced species diversity in the field. Importantly,
changes in soil biota effects on plant growth were positively correlated
with changes in plant relative abundances caused by warming and
N-enrichment in field. In a parallel field experiment, the diversity of
mycorrhizal fungi increased while the diversity of fungal pathogens
remained unchanged under warming and N-enrichment, indicating that soil
biodiversity may play a critical role in plant responses to environmental
change. 4. This study empirically demonstrates that altered plant-soil
biota interactions explain shifts in plant community composition under
global change, providing new insights into the mechanisms of diversity
loss in a changing world.