Biodiversity drives ecosystem multifunctionality in sandy grasslands?

Plant communities and soil microbiomes play a crucial role in regulating ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF). However, whether and how aboveground plant diversity, belowground soil microbial diversity and interactions with environmental factors affect EMF in sandy grasslands under climate change conditions is unclear. Here, we selected 15 typical grassland communities from the Horqin sandy grassland along temperature and precipitation gradients, using the mean annual temperature (AMT), mean annual precipitation (AP), soil temperature (ST), soil water content (SW) and pH as abiotic factors, and plant diversity (P) and soil microbial diversity (S) as biodiversity indicators. The effects of biodiversity and abiotic factors on individual ecosystem functions and EMF were studied. We found that P and its components, plant species richness (S), species diversity (P) and genetic diversity (G), had significant effects on aboveground biomass (AGB) and major factors involved in ecosystem nitrogen cycling (plant leaf nitrogen content (PLN) and soil total nitrogen content (STN)) (P < 0.05). Soil fungal diversity (F) has a greater impact on ecosystem function than soil bacteria (B) and archaea (AB) in sandy grasslands and mainly promotes the accumulation of soil microbial carbon and nitrogen (MBC, MBN) (P < 0.05), STC and STN (P < 0.01). P and two types of S (F and AB) significantly regulated EMF (P < 0.01). Among the abiotic factors, soil pH and SW regulated EMF (P < 0.05), and SW and ST directly drove EMF (P < 0.05). P drove EMF significantly and indirectly (positively) through soil pH and ST (P < 0.001), while S drove EMF weakly and indirectly (negatively) through AP and P (P > 0.05). P was a stronger driving force on EMF than S. These results improve our understanding of the drivers of multifunctionality in sandy grassland ecosystems.