DOI: 10.5061/dryad.vhhmgqp1d
title: Temporal asynchrony of plant and soil biota determines ecosystem multifunctional stability

description: The role of plant biodiversity in stabilizing ecosystem multifunctionality
 has been extensively studied, however, the impact of soil biota
 biodiversity on ecosystem multifunctional stability, particularly under
 multiple environmental changes, remains unexplored. By conducting an
 experiment with environmental changes (adding water and nitrogen to a
 long-term grazing experiment) and an experiment without environmental
 changes (an undisturbed site) in semi-arid grasslands, our research
 revealed that environmental changes-induced changes in temporal stability
 of both above- and below-ground multifunctionality were mainly impacted by
 plant and soil biota asynchrony, rather than by species diversity.
 Furthermore, changes in temporal stability of above- and below-ground
 multifunctionality, under both experiments with and without environmental
 changes, were mainly associated with plant and soil biota asynchrony,
 respectively, suggesting that the temporal asynchrony of plant and soil
 biota has independent and non-substitutable effects on multifunctional
 stability. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering both
 above- and below-ground biodiversity or functions when evaluating the
 stabilizing effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functions.
description: ### File\_1: Asy\_GI\_raw data **Sheet1**: Plant community from 48
 subplots for three years. There is a total of 46 plant species, and each
 plant species belongs to a functional group (in brackets). The unit for
 each number is g-1 m-2. The abbreviations of plant functional groups are:
 AB: Annuals and biennials PB: Perennial bunchgrasses PF: Perennial forbs
 PR: Perennial rhizome grasses SS: Shrub and semi-shrub **Sheet2**:
 Nematode community from 48 subplots for three years. There is a total of
 46 nematode genera, and each nematode genus belongs to a functional group
 (in brackets). The unit for each number is ind. g-1 dry soil. The
 abbreviations of nematode functional groups: BF: Bacterial feeders FF:
 Fungal feeders PF: Plant feeders OC: Omnivores and carnivores **Sheet3**:
 Bacterial ZOTU table from 48 subplots for three years. The last seven
 columns contain the taxonomy for each ZOTU. The unit of each number is
 sequence. **Sheet4**: Fungal ZOTU table from 48 subplots for three years.
 The last seven columns contain the taxonomy for each ZOTU. The unit of
 each number is sequence The variables of Year and SampleID for each sheet
 are sampling year and sampling ID for each subplots. ### File\_2:
 Asy\_GI.xlsx **Sheet1**: The raw and transformational data for the
 experiment with multiple environmental changes. **Sheet2**: The raw and
 transformational data for the experiment without multiple environmental
 changes. NA in the dataset indicates missing data for relevant variable.
 All treatment variables in Sheet1 and Sheet2 are listed as follows: *
 SampleID: Sampling ID for each subplots * Tran: Raw (Raw) and
 transformational (Z0-1) data * GI: Four grazing intensities, including
 GI0.0 (0.0 sheep ha-1), GI1.5 (1.5 sheep ha-1), GI4.5 (4.5 sheep ha-1),
 and GI9.0 (9.0 sheep ha-1) * Plot: Plot number * Treat: Experimental
 treatment, including CK (without W or N addition), W (+W, approximately
 30% of mean annual rainfall), N (+N, 10.5 kg N ha−1 year−1), and WN
 (+N+W). * N: N addition (1) or not (0) * W: W addition (1) or not (0) All
 number variables in Sheet1 and Sheet2 are listed as follows: | SOC | g
 kg-1 | Soil organic carbon | | :---------- | :---------------- |
 :-------------------------------------------------------- | | TSN | g kg-1
 | Total soil nitrogen | | PH | unitless | Soil pH | | SM | unitless | soil
 moisture | | Pl.rich | unitless | plant richness | | Ba.rich | unitless |
 Bacterial ZOTU richness | | Fu.rich | unitless | Fungal ZOTU richness | |
 Ne.rich | unitless | Nematode taxon richness | | AB.rich | unitless |
 Annuals and biennials richness | | PB.rich | unitless | Perennial
 bunchgrass richness | | PF.rich | unitless | Perennial forbs richness | |
 PR.rich | unitless | Perennial rhizome grasses richness | | BC.rich |
 unitless | Carbon-related bacteria ZOTU richness | | BN.rich | unitless |
 Nitrogen-related bacteria ZOTU richness | | AMF.rich | unitless |
 Mycorrhizal fungi ZOTU richness | | PATH.rich | unitless | Plant pathogen
 fungi ZOTU richness | | SAP.rich | unitless | Soil saprotroph fungi ZOTU
 richness | | BF.rich | unitless | Bacterial feeders richness | | FF.rich |
 unitless | Fungal feeders richness | | HF.rich | unitless | Plant feeders
 richness | | OC.rich | unitless | Omnivores+carnivores richness | |
 Pl.beta | unitless | plant composition | | Ba.beta | unitless | Bacterial
 ZOTU composition | | Fu.beta | unitless | Fungal ZOTU composition | |
 Ne.beta | unitless | Nematode taxon composition | | AB.beta | unitless |
 Annuals and biennials composition | | PB.beta | unitless | Perennial
 bunchgrass composition | | PF.beta | unitless | Perennial forbs
 composition | | PR.beta | unitless | Perennial rhizome grasses composition
 | | BC.beta | unitless | Carbon-related bacteria ZOTU composition | |
 BN.beta | unitless | Nitrogen-related bacteria ZOTU composition | |
 BF.beta | unitless | Bacterial feeders composition | | FF.beta | unitless
 | Fungal feeders composition | | HF.beta | unitless | Plant feeders
 composition | | OC.beta | unitless | Omnivores+carnivores composition | |
 AMF.beta | unitless | Mycorrhizal fungi ZOTU composition | | PATH.beta |
 unitless | Plant pathogen fungi ZOTU composition | | SAP.beta | unitless |
 Soil saprotroph fungi ZOTU composition | | Pl.asy | unitless | plant
 asynchrony | | Ba.asy | unitless | Bacterial ZOTU asynchrony | | Fu.asy |
 unitless | Fungal ZOTU asynchrony | | Ne.asy | unitless | Nematode taxon
 asynchrony | | AB.asy | unitless | Annuals and biennials asynchrony | |
 PB.asy | unitless | Perennial bunchgrass asynchrony | | PF.asy | unitless
 | Perennial forbs asynchrony | | PR.asy | unitless | Perennial rhizome
 grasses asynchrony | | BC.asy | unitless | Carbon-related bacteria ZOTU
 asynchrony | | BN.asy | unitless | Nitrogen-related bacteria ZOTU
 asynchrony | | SAP.asy | unitless | Soil saprotroph fungi ZOTU asynchrony
 | | PATH.asy | unitless | Plant pathogen fungi ZOTU asynchrony | | AMF.asy
 | unitless | Mycorrhizal fungi ZOTU asynchrony | | BF.asy | unitless |
 Bacterial feeders asynchrony | | FF.asy | unitless | Fungal feeders
 asynchrony | | HF.asy | unitless | Plant feeders asynchrony | | OC.asy |
 unitless | Omnivores+carnivores asynchrony | | TMB.mean | nmol g-1 | Total
 microbial biomass | | TMB.sd | unitless | Standard deviation of total
 microbial biomass | | TMB.sta | unitless | Stability of total microbial
 biomass | | Cmin.mean | mg g-1 day-1 | Soil carbon mineralization | |
 Cmin.sd | unitless | Standard deviation of soil carbon mineralization | |
 Cmin.sta | unitless | Stability of soil carbon mineralization | |
 Nmin.mean | mg g-1 day-1 | Soil nitrogen mineralization | | Nmin.sd |
 unitless | Standard deviation of soil nitrogen mineralization | | Nmin.sta
 | unitless | Stability of soil nitrogen mineralization | | ANPP.mean | g
 m-2 | Above-ground net primary production | | ANPP.sd | unitless |
 Standard deviation of above-ground net primary production | | ANPP.sta |
 unitless | Stability of above-ground net primary production | | TNA.mean |
 ind. g-1 dry soil | Soil nematode abundance | | TNA.sd | unitless |
 Standard deviation of soil nematode abundance | | TNA.sta | unitless |
 Stability of soil nematode abundance | | RS.mean | μmol m-2 s-1 | Soil
 respiration | | RS.sd | unitless | Standard deviation of soil respiration
 | | RS.sta | unitless | Stability of soil respiration | | Above.mean |
 unitless | Mean of above-ground multifunctionality | | Above.sd | unitless
 | Standard deviation of above-ground multifunctionality | | Above.sta |
 unitless | Stability of above-ground multifunctionality | | Below\.mean |
 unitless | Mean of below-ground multifunctionality | | Below\.sd |
 unitless | Standard deviation of  below-ground multifunctionality | |
 Below\.sta | unitless | Stability of  below-ground multifunctionality | |
 All.mean | unitless | Mean of total multifunctionality | | All.sd |
 unitless | Standard deviation of total multifunctionality | | All.sta |
 unitless | Stability of total multifunctionality | | Above.rich | unitless
 | Rich of above-ground plants | | Above.beta | unitless | Beta of
 above-ground plants | | Above.asy | unitless | Asynchrony of above-ground
 plants | | Below\.rich | unitless | Rich of below-ground soil biota | |
 Below\.beta | unitless | Beta of below-ground soil biota | | Below\.asy |
 unitless | Asynchrony of below-ground soil biota | ## Code/Software Any
 scripts,code, packages can be run using R version 4.2.1 (R Core Team,
 2022).