Fig. 4: Correlations between ecosystem stability and its components and explanatory variables.

The size of the squares indicates the significance of Spearman’s correlation between explanatory variables, and the colors represent the different strengths of the correlations. Biotic variables include: Height_CWM, LDMC_CWM, LCC_CWM, LNC_CWM, LPC_CWM (community-level weighted means of plant functional traits); CWM_PC1 (the first principal component of the plant functional traits), CWM_PC2 (the second principal component of the plant functional traits); SR (species richness), D (Simpson’s diversity index), H’ (Shannon-Wiener index), J (Pielou’s evenness index); FRic (functional richness), FEve (functional evenness), FDiv (functional divergence), FDis (functional dispersion); PD (phylogenetic diversity). Abiotic variables include: MAP (mean annual precipitation), MAP_SD (interannual precipitation variability), PS (intraannual precipitation variability), MAT (mean annual temperature), MAT_SD (interannual temperature variability), TS (intraannual temperature variability); BD (soil bulk density), Sand (soil sand content), Silt (soil silt content), Clay (soil clay content), pH (soil pH), SOC (soil organic carbon), STN (soil total nitrogen), STP (soil total phosphorus); Long_sin (sinus of longitude), Long_cos (cosinus of longitude), latitude and altitude. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001.