Ecosystem Multifunctionality and Biodiversity Interactions

Ecosystem multifunctionality refers to the capacity of natural systems to sustain multiple functions and services—such as nutrient cycling, primary production, decomposition and climate regulation—simultaneously. Biodiversity underpins these functions through complementary resource use, functional redundancy and intricate trophic interactions. Aboveground communities of plants, herbivores and predators interact dynamically with belowground networks of microbes and soil fauna, generating feedbacks that stabilise and enhance functions. Environmental drivers—climate, land use, nutrient inputs and water availability—modulate these interactions, leading to context-dependent outcomes. As global change accelerates species loss, habitat degradation and altered disturbance regimes, understanding how biodiversity across scales and trophic levels governs multifunctionality is vital for predicting ecosystem resilience and guiding conservation and restoration strategies worldwide.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have demonstrated that long-term nutrient enrichment can induce soil acidification that disrupts belowground biodiversity–function relationships. Acidification, rather than shifts in nutrient availability per se, emerges as a key mechanism weakening microbial diversity and cascading effects on nematode assemblages, with marked declines in processes related to carbon and nutrient cycling. In dryland ecosystems, research along broad aridity gradients reveals that plant species richness drives multifunctionality under lower aridity, whereas fungal diversity becomes increasingly critical in more arid zones. This shift at the semiarid–arid boundary highlights the need for climate-specific biodiversity management. Foundational global analyses further indicate that soil microbial richness exerts a positive direct effect on multifunctionality, even after accounting for climate and soil properties, underscoring the universal importance of conserving microbial diversity to maintain ecosystem services.

Research from all publishers

Field experiments in semiarid grasslands show that reduced precipitation modifies soil microbial network complexity, with simpler networks and heightened competitive interactions correlating with diminished soil multifunctionality under drought. In agroecosystems, combined applications of biochar and organic fertilisers are reported to bolster abundances of microbial taxa involved in carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur cycling, leading to substantial gains in multifunctionality and crop productivity. Mesocosm studies manipulating both litter diversity and soil microbial richness reveal that above- and belowground biodiversity act both independently and interactively to enhance plant growth, litter decomposition, soil respiration and enzymatic activities. These findings illustrate tangible management avenues—from moisture regimes to amendment strategies—that link biodiversity maintenance with the sustained delivery of ecosystem services.

Ecosystem Multifunctionality and Biodiversity Interactions publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in ecosystem multifunctionality and biodiversity interactions across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Ecosystem multifunctionality: The simultaneous performance of multiple ecosystem processes and services.

Functional redundancy: The presence of multiple species that contribute similarly to a given function.

Aridity gradient: A spatial or temporal continuum of decreasing precipitation and increasing dryness.

Microbial network complexity: The structure and strength of interactions among soil microorganisms.

Soil acidification: Reduction in soil pH often driven by nutrient inputs, affecting biological communities and processes.

References

1. Decreased soil multifunctionality is associated with altered microbial network properties under precipitation reduction in a semiarid grassland. iMeta (2023).
2. Nutrient-induced acidification modulates soil biodiversity-function relationships. Nature Communications (2024).
3. Biochar and organic fertilizer applications enhance soil functional microbial abundance and agroecosystem multifunctionality. Biochar (2024).
4. Litter and soil biodiversity jointly drive ecosystem functions. Global Change Biology (2023).
5. Microbial diversity drives multifunctionality in terrestrial ecosystems. Nature Communications (2016).
6. The links between ecosystem multifunctionality and above- and belowground biodiversity are mediated by climate. Nature Communications (2015).
7. Aridity-driven shift in biodiversity–soil multifunctionality relationships. Nature Communications (2021).