Decoupled responses of plants and soil biota to global change across the world’s land ecosystems

Understanding the concurrent responses of aboveground and belowground
compartments to global changes is crucial for the maintenance of ecosystem
functions and biodiversity conservation. We conducted a comprehensive
analysis synthesizing data from 13,209 single observations and 3,223
pairwise observations from 1,166 publications globally to examine the
responses of plants and soil organisms and their synchronization. We found
that global change factors (GCFs) generally promoted aboveground plant
biomass but decreased plant species diversity. In comparison, the
responses of belowground soil biota to GCFs were more variable and harder
to predict. The analysis of the paired aboveground and belowground
observations demonstrated that responses of plants and soil organisms to
GCFs are decoupled among diverse groups of soil organisms for different
biomes. Our study highlights the importance of integrative research on the
aboveground-belowground system for improving predictions regarding the
consequences of global environmental change.