DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6t1g1jx9q
title: Data from: Contrasting impacts of nitrogen enrichment on soil nematode diversity in natural and managed ecosystems

description: Soil nematode communities are increasingly subjected to pressures from
 multiple global change drivers, such as nitrogen (N) enrichment and land
 management practices. Although the critical role of N inputs in regulating
 soil nematode communities has been well studied, the contrasting responses
 of soil nematode diversity to N enrichment in natural versus managed
 ecosystems remain poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we
 conduct a global meta-analysis using 3323 paired observations from 173
 publications to quantify the impacts of mineral N inputs on the richness
 and abundance of soil nematode diversity across natural ecosystems (e.g.,
 unmanaged grasslands and forests) and managed ecosystems (e.g.,
 croplands). N enrichment significantly reduced the richness and abundance
 of soil nematode communities in natural ecosystems, primarily driven by
 the prohibiting effects of N enrichment-induced soil ammonium toxicity and
 soil acidification on the abundances of plant-feeding, fungal-feeding, and
 omnivorous-carnivorous nematodes. In contrast, while N enrichment reduced
 the taxon richness of soil nematode in managed ecosystems, it did not
 diminish their total abundance. This discrepancy may be explained by the
 increased soil microbial biomass under N enrichment, which favored the
 dominance of bacterial-feeding nematodes. These nematodes thrived at the
 expense of other trophic guilds with low resource competitiveness and high
 N sensitivities, leading to a loss of species diversity but maintaining
 overall community abundance. Furthermore, the responses of soil nematode
 richness and abundance to N enrichment in managed ecosystems were not
 regulated by N addition regimes and climate factors. This suggests that
 management practices may override the constraints imposed by climate
 change on nematode diversity. Synthesis and application: Our
 findings demonstrate that N enrichment exerts a greater negative impact on
 soil nematode diversity in natural ecosystems compared to managed cropping
 systems, which arises from the distinct responses of different soil
 nematode trophic guilds to management practices and environmental changes.
 Understanding the mechanisms underlying the contrasting effects of N
 enrichment on soil nematode diversity in natural versus managed ecosystems
 is critical for enhancing the ecological resilience of soil food webs and
 sustaining soil biodiversity in the face of global change.
description: # Data from: Contrasting impacts of nitrogen enrichment on soil nematode
 diversity in natural and managed ecosystems This README file was generated
 on 2025-04-27 by Xiaoming Lu. GENERAL INFORMATION 1. Title of Dataset:
 Contrasting impacts of nitrogen enrichment on soil nematode diversity in
 natural and managed ecosystems. 2. Author Information Principal
 Investigator Contact Information Name: Xiaoming Lu Institution: Institute
 of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences Address: Beijing, China Email:
 [luxiaoming@ibcas.ac.cn](mailto:luxiaoming@ibcas.ac.cn) 1. Date of data
 collection (single date, range, approximate date): 1988-2023. 2.
 Geographic location of data collection: Global terrestrial ecosystems. 3.
 Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the
 data: National Natural Science Foundation of China (42407434).
 SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION 1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data:
 CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain 2. Links to publications that
 cite or use the data: Lu X.M., Chen, D.M., Xing, W., Li, Y., Chen, X.L.,
 Lou, N., Ding, J.Y., Bai, Y.F. (2025). Contrasting impacts of nitrogen
 enrichment on soil nematode diversity in natural and managed ecosystems.
 Journal of Applied Ecology. 1. Links to other publicly accessible
 locations of the data: None. 2. Links/relationships to ancillary data
 sets: None. 3. Was data derived from another source? No. A. If yes, list
 source(s): NA. 1. Recommended citation for this dataset: Lu X.M., Chen,
 D.M., Xing, W., Li, Y., Chen, X.L., Lou, N., Ding, J.Y., Bai, Y.F. (2025).
 Data from: Contrasting impacts of nitrogen enrichment on soil nematode
 diversity in natural and managed ecosystems. Dryad Digital Repository.
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6t1g1jx9q](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6t1g1jx9q) DATA & FILE OVERVIEW 1. File List: Lu_et_al_2025_04_27_JAE_data.xlsx 2. Relationship between files, if important: None 3. Additional related data collected that was not included in the current data package: None. 4. Are there multiple versions of the dataset? No. A. If yes, name of file(s) that was updated: NA. i. Why was the file updated? NA. ii. When was the file updated? NA DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Lu_et_al_2025_04_27_JAE_data.xlsx 1. Number of variables: 30 2. Number of cases/rows: 563 3. Variable List: * Reference_ID: the ID of collected references, a total of 173 references in our meta-analysis. * Reference: the name of collected references, including the name of the first author and date (year) of publication. * Study: the ID of studies, a total of 163 studies in our meta-analysis. Each site indicated in the selected papers was treated as an independent study. If studies were conducted at the same site under an identical experimental design but reported in separate papers, they were treated as one study. When multiple independent experiments were conducted at different sites in one paper, they were treated as distinct studies. * Ecosystem: ecosystem types, encompassing grasslands, forests, and croplands, respectively. * Land_use: natural or managed. Based on the land use information provided by original publications, we categorized these samples into the natural or managed ecosystem. The natural ecosystem refers to the ecosystem is not suffered by human disturbance, and the N addition experiments was conducted to simulate atmosphere N deposition scenario. Managed ecosystems are primarily those that have been disturbed by human activities such as tillage, fertilization, irrigation, grazing or logging, and the N addition treatment was used for crop or pasture management. In our dataset, natural ecosystem mainly included grasslands and forests, while the managed ecosystem mainly included croplands. * MAP (mm): mean annual precipitation, and its unit is mm. * MAT (℃): mean annual temperature, and its unit is ℃. * Duration (year): experimental duration, and its unit is year. * Duration_category: experimental duration &lt; 5 years, 5 to 10 years, 10 to 15 years, &gt;15 years. * N_addition_rate (g N m-2 year-1): The amounts (gram) of nitrogen addition per square meter per year. * lnRR.NH4+: the natural log-transformed response ratio (lnRR) of soil ammonium concentration and had no units. In detail, lnRR = ln(Xt /Xc), where Xt and Xc are the mean values of response variables in the N enrichment and control plots, respectively. Because Xt and Xc had the same units, the lnRR would have no units when calculated from the formula: lnRR = ln(Xt /Xc). * wt.NH4+: the weight of each lnRR of soil ammonium concentration observation and had no units. In detail, wt= (Nc × Nt)/(Nc + Nt), where wt is the weight of each lnRR observation, while Nt and Nc represent the number of replications in the N enrichment treatments and control, respectively. And thus the wt.NH4+ also had no units. * lnRR.pH: the natural log-transformed response ratio (lnRR) of soil pH and had no units. * wt.pH: the weight of each lnRR of soil pH observation and had no units. * lnRR.Plant_biomass: the natural log-transformed response ratio (lnRR) of plant biomass and had no units. * wt.Plant_biomass: the weight of each lnRR of plant biomass observation and had no units. * lnRR.Microbial_biomass: the natural log-transformed response ratio (lnRR) of microbial biomass carbon and had no units. * wt.Microbial_biomass: the weight of each lnRR of microbial biomass carbon observation and had no units. * lnRR.Richness_nematodes: the natural log-transformed response ratio (lnRR) of total nematode richness at the genus level and had no units. * wt.Richness_nematodes: the weight of each lnRR of total nematode richness observation at the genus level and had no units. * lnRR.Total_nematodes: the natural log-transformed response ratio (lnRR) of total nematode abundance and had no units. * wt.Total_nematodes: the weight of each lnRR of total nematode abundance observation and had no units. * lnRR.Plant_feeders: the natural log-transformed response ratio (lnRR) of plant-feeding nematode abundance and had no units. * wt.Plant_feeders: the weight of each lnRR of plant-feeding nematode abundance observation and had no units. * lnRR.Bacterial_feeders: the natural log-transformed response ratio (lnRR) of bacterial-feeding nematode abundance and had no units. * wt.Bacterial_feeders: the weight of each lnRR of bacterial-feeding nematode abundance observation and had no units. * lnRR.Fungal_feeders: the natural log-transformed response ratio (lnRR) of fungal-feeding nematode abundance and had no units. * wt.Fungal_feeders: the weight of each lnRR of fungal-feeding nematode abundance observation and had no units. * lnRR.Omni_carnivores: the natural log-transformed response ratio (lnRR) of omnivorous-carnivorous nematode abundance and had no units. * wt.Omni_carnivores: the weight of each lnRR of omnivorous-carnivorous nematode abundance observation and had no units. n/a: missing values. NA: no units.