Trajectories and thresholds of multi-diversities and multi-functions in response to nitrogen enrichment

An ecosystem is composed by multiple biota across several trophic levels, which interactively perform multiple ecosystem functions. Anthropogenic reactive nitrogen is expected to alter these ecosystem attributes including biota diversities and ecosystem functions. Here, we find that five biota diversities differ substantially in response trajectory and threshold with increasing nitrogen amount, and so do the four examined functions. Our study provides a vivid picture of how multi-biota diversities and multiple functions concurrently respond to nitrogen enrichment and suggests that the attribute-specific response trajectories and thresholds should be taken into account in models predicting ecosystem feedbacks to nitrogen deposition.