Alfalfa mulching improved soil health and ecosystem multifunctionality of Camellia oleifera forests on a subtropical karst brae

Introduction: forests. Methods: forests on a subtropical karst brae. Results: Alfalfa mulching elevated the relative abundance of beneficial bacteria and fungi, reduced the relative abundance of pathogenic fungi, and enhanced soil health and ecosystem multifunctionality. Understory vegetation diversity, soil microbial function, microbial diversity, microbial life-history strategy, microbial community stability, microbial cross-kingdom network stability, and phylogenetic bin assembly could jointly affect both soil health and ecosystem multifunctionality, however, soil microbial function showed the highest individual effects. Discussion: forests. The strategy works by shifting focus from above-ground vegetation management alone to integrated management of both above- and below-ground microbial communities-specifically through improving soil microbial function via mulching.