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Abstract:
Recent studies assessing the role of biological diversity for ecosystem
functioning indicate that the diversity of functional traits and the evolutionary history of
species in a community, not the number of taxonomic units, ultimately drives the biodiversity–
ecosystem-function relationship. Here, we simultaneously assessed the importance of plant functional trait and phylogenetic diversity as predictors of major trophic groups of soil biota
(abundance and diversity), six years from the onset of a grassland biodiversity experiment.
Plant functional and phylogenetic diversity were generally better predictors of soil biota than
the traditionally used species or functional group richness. Functional diversity was a reliable
predictor for most biota, with the exception of soil microorganisms, which were better
predicted by phylogenetic diversity. These results provide empirical support for the idea that
the diversity of plant functional traits and the diversity of evolutionary lineages in a
community are important for maintaining higher abundances and diversity of soil
communities
