Soil properties and N-cycling community data for 324 samples

Soil microbial communities, key players of many crucial ecosystem
functions, are prone to degradation due to intensified environmental
perturbations. However, few ecological concepts and practices have been
developed for rescuing these degraded microbial communities. Here, we
carried out a pot experiment (totally 324 pots) with or without arbuscular
mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation and at three levels (one, three and
six species) of plant diversity to disentangle how the AMF and vegetation
rescue the soil nitrogen (N) -cycling microbial loop. Our results provide
strong evidence that AMF inoculation improved the restoration of soil
N-cycling microbial communities. This improved restoration is related to
the role of AMF in enhancing interactions within the N-cycling microbial
loop. Furthermore, increased plant diversity strengthened the role of AMF
in rescuing degraded N-cycling microbial communities. Our findings provide
novel insights into the roles of AMF and plant diversity in facilitating
the rescue of microbial communities in degraded terrestrial ecosystems.