Summary of the minimal adequate models.

Results of regressions of ecosystem processes (Cottondecomp: cotton decomposition, Litterdecom 98: litter decomposition in 1998, Productivity: productivity as annual biomass production, Npool bm: nitrogen pool size in aboveground biomass, Multifunctionality: mean performance over all processes) against 8 biodiversity indices (S: species richness, E: species evenness, PC1 PC2 and PC3: aggregated mean trait values along three PCoA axes, FRic: functional richness, FEve: functional evenness, FDiv: functional divergence). t-value for each selected variable, adjusted R2s for the ordinary least squares regression models and p-value associated to the multiple regressions are presented. Explanatory variables (biodiversity indices) were selected using a backward selection procedure starting with a maximal model towards the one containing nothing but significant terms (pp**p***p