The drastic global change arises concerns about how the loss of biodiversity impacts the ecosystem functioning. As a key connection of above- and below- ground ecosystem processes, plant litter has received considerable attention because of its fundamental role in regulating carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Although we have gained a good understanding about the effects of plant diversity on litter decomposition, it is still not clear on how soil microbial communities, which are the key drivers of soil biogeochemical cycling, can be altered by the changes of litter diversity. In particular, the interactive effects of changing climatic condition (e.g., moisture) and litter diversity on soil microbial communities have rarely been studied. That is a crucial knowledge gap which may hinder our ability to predict C and N cycling in terrestrial ecosystems in the context of global change, especially for the alpine ecosystems.

In order to examine how microbial communities from alpine soil respond to litter diversity in a changing moisture condition, Dr. CHEN Youchao, from Systems Ecology Group (CAS Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology) at Wuhan Botanical Garden, collected four kinds of alpine litter species, and employed a fully factorial litter mixing experiment under different soil moisture conditions (i.e., 20%, 30% and 40% water holding capacity) to look at the interactive influences of litter diversity and soil moisture on microbes.