Coupled Above‐ and Belowground Ecosystem Stability Worldwide
Upholding stable terrestrial ecosystems is integral to supporting climate regulation and planetary security. Yet, while aboveground ecosystem stability is widely described, global-scale patterns in belowground ecosystem stability and how it connects to aboveground stability remain virtually unknown. Here, we assembled a global dataset including high-resolution information on annual estimates of soil respiration from 4,544 communities and associated aboveground ecosystem productivity over the past four decades (1985-2018). We found that ecosystems with greater stability in aboveground productivity had greater long-term stability in soil respiration, with a positive and significant connection between above- and belowground stability being especially strong in arid environments. Stable temperatures played a crucial role in reinforcing the stability and coupling of above- and belowground ecosystems. Our work provides new evidence of, and insights into, the local to global connections of stability of above- and belowground biological activity, and identifies a fundamental role of temperature stability in maintaining this stability under a changing climate.
Authors
- Daniel Revillini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0380-4106)
- Shantao An
- Alexey Voinov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2985-4574)
- Peter B. Reich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4424-662X)
- Zexin Meng
- Shuguang Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2356-7045)
- Ying‐Ping Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4614-6203)
- Guopeng Liang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5514-785X)
- Fubo Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5148-0732)
- Manuel Delgado‐Baquerizo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6499-576X)
- Yue Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8889-5475)
- Ji Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7026-6312)
- Huiwen Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7829-9063)
- Jingfeng Xiao
- Zhifeng Yang
- Wende Yan
- Diego Abalos
- Linjing Qiu
- Nico Eisenhauer
Institutions
- Central South University of Forestry and Technology (CN)
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (US)
- Central South University (CN)
- University of New Hampshire (US)
- Northwestern Polytechnical University (CN)
- Aarhus University (DK)
- Hainan University (CN)
- Beijing Normal University (CN)
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (DE)
- Yale University (US)
- Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (ES)
- Institute for Social Research (NO)
- Western Sydney University (AU)
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Leipzig University (DE)
- University of Twente (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Science
- Published
- 2026-03-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202517411
- Primary Topic
- Ecosystem dynamics and resilience
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00