Data from: Biodiversity of soil biota and plants stabilizes ecosystem multifunctionality with increasing number of global change factors

Increasing the number of global change factors (GCFs) strongly influences
biodiversity and ecosystem functions. However, the specific mechanisms
through which biodiversity, especially soil biodiversity, stabilizes
ecosystem multifunctionality under rapidly growing GCFs remain elusive.
Here, we implemented a multifaceted approach involving multiple GCFs
(nitrogen addition, phosphorus addition, and soil acidification) in the
Inner Mongolia grassland to elucidate the impact of species diversity,
community composition, and temporal asynchrony within plant and soil biota
on multifunctional stability. Our findings showed that with an increasing
number of GCFs, plant and soil biodiversity, ecosystem multifunctionality,
and multifunctional stability broadly decreased. The negative effects of
GCFs on multifunctional stability were primarily associated with the
community asynchrony of soil nematodes and plants, while the negative
effects on ecosystem multifunctionality were mainly associated with the
community composition of soil fungi. Additionally, the indirect influence
of diversity within plants and soil biota on multifunctionality and its
stability was manifested through their effects on the community
composition or asynchrony. Synthesis. Our results provide new empirical
evidence that soil biodiversity is at least as important as plant
biodiversity in determining multifunctionality and multifunctional
stability under multiple GCFs. These findings highlight the importance of
conserving soil biodiversity and integrating it into conservation efforts
to maintain ecosystem stability in the face of increasing GCFs.