Cross-scale effects of habitat fragmentation on local biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality in a fragmented grassland landscape

Anthropogenic habitat fragmentation has become the main threat to terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. However, the impacts of habitat fragmentation at different spatial scales on biodiversity and ecosystem functions remain uncertain. Based on 130 fragmented grassland landscapes in the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China, we investigated the hierarchical effects of habitat fragmentation at landscape and patch scales on plant, soil bacteria, and soil fungi diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality in local sample sites. We found that increased inter-patch distance within the landscape had the strongest negative effect on plant richness. Decreased habitat amount within the landscape had the strongest negative effect on bacteria richness, fungi richness, and 80% threshold multifunctionality. Decreased patch area and increased patch isolation had the strongest negative effects on 30% and 50% threshold multifunctionality, respectively. Importantly, we found that patch-scale fragmentation m..., , # Cross-scale effects of habitat fragmentation on local biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality in a fragmented grassland landscape

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.kprr4xhgs](10.5061/dryad.kprr4xhgs)

## Description of the data and file structure

There are two data files. The \"Habitat Fragmentation Data\" and \"Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functions Data\" files contain data from 130 sample sites collected in the Tabu River Basin in the Siziwang Banner of the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China.
### Files and variables

#### File: Biodiversity\_and\_Ecosystem\_Functions\_Data.xlsx

**Description:** 

##### Variables

* Sample site: the ID of 130 sample sites.
* Plant richness: number of plant species.
* Bacteria richness: number of ASVs of soil bacteria.
* Fungi richness: number of ASVs of soil fungi.
* AGB: above-ground biomass (g).
* SOC: soil organic carbon (%).
* TN: soil total nitrogen (%).
* NH4: soil ammonium (mg/kg).
* NO3: soil nitrate (mg/kg).
* TP: soil total phosphorus (g...,