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..., , , # Biodiversity of soil biota and plants stabilizes ecosystem multifunctionality with increasing number of global change factors

Increasing global change factors (GCFs) significantly reduce biodiversity, ecosystem multifunctionality, and its stability. Using nitrogen and phosphorus addition and soil acidification in Inner Mongolia grasslands, we found that these effects are driven by shifts in plant and soil biota diversity, composition, and asynchrony. Specifically, soil nematode and plant asynchrony influenced stability, while fungal community composition impacted multifunctionality. Diversity effects were mainly indirect, acting through changes in community structure and dynamics.

The dataset consists of a GCFs_NEW.xlsx and an R code file.

Sheet 1 was the dataset for all raw data, and Sheet 2 was the dataset for SEM.

The dataset contains 108 variables for Sheet1 and Sheet2. NA in the dataset indicates missing data for the relevant variable.

**Column Units Description**

* TRE uni...,