Plant nutritional and structural diversity shape multitrophic arthropod communities and grassland productivity

Arthropod communities, comprising diverse trophic groups such as herbivores, predators, and parasitoids, are intricately linked to plant traits that provide food and habitat.  While it is well-established that changes in plant functional diversity (e.g., trait identity and diversity) can significantly alter arthropod diversity across trophic levels, the cascading effects on ecosystem functions remain less understood.  Particularly, the role of multitrophic arthropod diversity in mediating the relationship between plant functional diversity and grassland productivity presents a critical knowledge gap in ecosystem ecology. We employed a long-term plant removal experiment in the Inner Mongolian grassland to systematically investigate how variations in the community-weight mean and diversity of multiple plant traits influence the diversity (measured by taxon richness and abundance) of herbivores and their natural enemies.  Furthermore, we explored how trophic interactions bet..., 1. Study site This study was conducted at the Inner Mongolia Grassland Ecosystem Research Station (IMGERS, 43°38’N, 116°42’El) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, located in the Xilin River Basin of Inner Mongolia, China.  The study site is characterized by a semiarid climate, with a mean annual precipitation of 346.1 mm and a mean annual temperature of 0.3°C.  The soil at this location is classified as dark chestnut soil with relatively homogeneous physionutrient properties (Calcic Chernozems according to the IUSS Working Group WRB 2006).  The plant community at our study site comprises approximately 20 species, with Stipa grandis and Leymus chinensis identified as the dominant species (Bai et al., 2004).   All necessary permits were obtained from IMGERS prior to carrying out the field work.  To investigate the effects of plant functional diversity on ecosystem processes, we utilized the Inner Mongolia Grassland Removal Experiment (IMGRE), established in 2005 (..., # Plant nutritional and structural diversity shape multitrophic arthropod communities and grassland productivity Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.dbrv15fgq](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dbrv15fgq) ## Description of the data and file structure To explore how the functional diversity of plant nutritional and structural traits influences arthropod communities, and, subsequently, grassland ecosystem productivity, we conducted a comprehensive study using a long-term plant removal experiment in the Inner Mongolia grassland ([Sasaki et al., 2019](#_ENREF_63 \"Sasaki, 2019 #32\"), [Wu et al., 2015](#_ENREF_76 \"Wu, 2015 #75\")). Our unique experimental design allowed us to explore a broad range of variations in both the functional identity and diversity of plant nutritional and structural traits.  Our study aimed to address two fundamental questions: First, how do variations in the community-weighted mean and diversity of plant nutritional and structural traits shape the diversity of herbivores and..., ,