Abstract
Aims
Plants and soils are key factors in maintaining ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF). Yet, it remains unclear how climate factors regulate the EMF through soil properties and plant diversity of different plant functional groups in primary dark coniferous forests of subalpine regions.
Methods
Nine functional indicators related to carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus cycling and plant productivity, four leaf functional traits, mean annual precipitation (MAP) and mean annual temperature (MAT) were collected from 50 primary dark coniferous forests in ten sites on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The EMF was calculated using two approaches. The averaging approach involves converting and averaging the functional indicators, and the multiple threshold approach quantifies the number of functions across different thresholds.
Results
MAP promoted EMF. Soil water content and shrub species richness had a significant positive effect on EMF, whereas herb species richness had a negative effect. Functional diversity and specific leaf area of tree species rather than richness had a significant positive effect on EMF, indicating the increase in functional traits was beneficial to EMF. Climatic factors could directly or indirectly affect EMF through species richness, functional diversity, and soil abiotic factors.
Conclusions
The effects of species richness on EMF varied among different plant functional groups, possibly related to different mechanisms, and highlighted the role of functional diversity in maintaining EMF. Spatial variation in climate could modify soil properties and plant diversity, further affecting EMF in primary dark coniferous forests. Hence, these findings should be considered in future predictions of how a changing climate could affect EMF.
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Data availability
The datasets analyzed in the study can be obtained from the corresponding author under reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds of CAF (CAFYBB2021ZA002-2, CAFYBB2022QC002, CAFYBB2022SY021 and CAFYBB2022SY024), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFD2200405) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32201321).
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All of the authors contributed to our research. Zuomin Shi and Feifan Li conceived the ideas and designed the research. Feifan Li, Shun Liu, Gexi Xu, Miaomiao Zhang, Xiangwen Cao, Miao Chen, Jian Chen, Hongshuang Xing and Shanshan Gong participated in plot construction and data collecting. Feifan Li analyzed the data and wrote the first draft. Zuomin Shi reviewed the draft. All authors commented and approved the final manuscript.
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Li, F., Shi, Z., Liu, S. et al. Soil properties and plant diversity co-regulate ecosystem multifunctionality of subalpine primary dark coniferous forest on the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Plant Soil 493, 207–219 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-06222-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-06222-0