The relationship between species richness and community stability to invasion changes under drought stress

Although plant diversity is known to enhance community stability to biological invasions, its interaction with environmental stressors remains poorly understood. We examined how drought stress affects the stability of native communities with different levels of plant diversity to invasion, by establishing experimental plant communities (300 plots) across a species richness gradient (1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 species), introducing the invasive herb Symphyotrichum subulatum to half of the communities, and applying three drought treatments (no, moderate and extreme drought). Results showed that a drought-dependent shift in community stability to invasion (quantified as the aboveground biomass change ratio between invaded and uninvaded communities): the positive richness-stability relationship observed under control moisture conditions became nonsignificant under drought stress. Plant diversity enhanced community stability under control moisture conditions by intensifying light..., , # The relationship between species richness and community stability to invasion changes under drought stress

DOI: 10.5061/dryad.7wm37pw5v

This dataset contains ecological measurements from a biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiment. The experiment manipulated plant species richness (plot code: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 species) and drought intensity (three levels: 0 = control, 1 = moderate drought, 2 = severe drought). A total of 49 unique species compositions were tested across combinations of richness and drought treatments.

### dataset_1.xlsx

### Variables:

*plot code*: Unique identifier for each experimental plot (e.g., 1-1-1-A), encoding species richness, drought intensity, and species composition.

*richness*: Number of native plant species in the plot (1, 2, 4, 8, or 16).

*drought intensity*: Level of drought treatment applied: 0 = control (no drought), 1 = moderate drought, 2 = extreme drought.

*species composition*: Categorical code representing the specific mixture of species..., ,