ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Functional Plant Ecology
This article is part of the Research TopicInteractive Effects of Climate Change and Human Activities on Plant Productivity in Grassland and Cropland EcosystemsView all 22 articles
Plant phylogenetic diversity promotes ecosystem multifunctionality, whereas soil bacterial diversity shows an opposite trend in subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests
Provisionally accepted
- Institute of Highland Forest Science, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Kunming, China
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Introduction: Ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) can be regulated by aboveground plant diversity, belowground soil microbial diversity, and abiotic factors. However, EMF drivers remain less understood in subtropical monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forests, although these forests are integral to terrestrial ecosystems. Methods: We hypothesized that topographic-soil driven changes in plant and soil microbial diversity regulate EMF differently in subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests; that is, plant diversity promotes EMF, while microbial diversity plays an opposite role. We chose 150 sample subplots (20 m × 20 m) for sampling and data collection in a 30 ha dynamics plot. The relative effects of phylogenetic, bacterial, and soil properties and topography on EMF were investigated in subtropical monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forests in Pu'er, Yunnan, China. Ten ecosystem functions, including aboveground biomass, soil organic carbon density, soil total nitrogen, soil total phosphorus, soil hydrolyzable nitrogen, soil available phosphorus, β-1,4-glucosidase, acid phosphatase, urease, and water holding capacity, were measured for the quantification of EMF. We used structural equation modeling to analyze the effects of abiotic factors, aboveground plant diversity, and belowground soil microbial diversity on EMF. Results: Our results indicated that EMF increased with plant phylogenetic diversity mean pairwise distance (MPD) and soil water content but decreased with bacterial diversity and soil pH. Elevation had indirect negative effects on EMF mediated through changes in plant phylogenetic diversity, and soil bacterial diversity. Discussion: Our study indicates that aboveground plant biodiversity and belowground soil biodiversity drive EMF through divergent pathways in subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests. Therefore, forest management strategies should include a diverse array of biodiversity for enhanced ecosystem functions.
Keywords: Driving mechanism, Ecosystem multifunctionality, Phylogenetic MPD, Soil microbial diversity, topography
Received: 20 Oct 2025; Accepted: 12 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Wang, Li, Lang, Huang and Su. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jianrong Su
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