Data from: Plant diversity improves resistance of plant biomass and soil microbial communities to drought

1. Biodiversity is known to affect ecosystem resistance and have
implications for the maintenance of ecosystem functions and services under
climate change. Compared to numbers of studies focusing on aboveground
vegetation, the response of belowground communities to abiotic stresses
along plant diversity gradients is often ignored and is considered an
important knowledge gap in ecosystem ecology. Here we conducted an
integrative research to evaluate the resistance of plant biomass, and soil
microbial communities and associated functional profiles to drought under
varying plant diversity. 2. We carried out a three-year manipulation
experiment by factorially controlling plant diversity gradient (1, 2, 4,
and 8 species richness) and soil moisture treatment (drought and
non-drought), and investigated the responses of plant biomass, soil
bacterial and fungal diversity and community composition, soil glomalin,
and five key soil enzymes. 3. We found that plant diversity significantly
improved the resistance of soil fungal communities and microbial
functional profiles characterized by soil glomalin and five key enzymes,
which was partly driven by the availability and accessibility of soil
resources (e.g., soil moisture and organic matter) mediated by plant
diversity. Further, our results indicated that the enhanced resistance of
fungal communities was consistent with ecological insurance theory that
diverse fungal communities at high plant diversity had a higher
probability of containing taxa that adapt to drought. 4. Synthesis. Our
study provides novel empirical insights into the mechanism underlying the
regulatory effect of plant diversity on resistance of aboveground
vegetation and belowground biota to drought, with implications for
understanding ecosystem response to climate change and improving
biodiversity conservation practices.