Little is currently known about how climate modulates the relationship between plant diversity and soil organic carbon and the mechanisms involved. Yet, this knowledge is of crucial importance in times of climate change and biodiversity loss. Here, we show that plant diversity is positively correlated with soil carbon content and soil carbon-to-nitrogen ratio across 84 grasslands on six continents that span wide climate gradients. The relationships between plant diversity and soil carbon as well as plant diversity and soil organic matter quality (carbon-to-nitrogen ratio) are particularly strong in warm and arid climates. While plant biomass is positively correlated with soil carbon, plant biomass is not significantly correlated with plant diversity. Our results indicate that plant diversity influences soil carbon storage not via the quantity of organic matter (plant biomass) inputs to soil, but through the quality of organic matter. The study implies that ecosystem management that restores plant diversity likely enhances soil carbon sequestration, particularly in warm and arid climates.

Centre for Applied Ecology Prof Baeta Neves School of Agriculture University of Lisbon Lisbon Portugal

Department of Arctic and Marine Biology UiT Arctic University of Norway Tromsø Norway

Department of Biodiversity and Nature Tourism Estonian University of Life Sciences Kreutzwaldi St 5 51006 Tartu Estonia

Department of Biology McDaniel College Westminster MD 21157 USA

Department of Biology Texas State University San Marcos TX 78666 USA

Department of Biology University of New Mexico Albuquerque NM 87131 USA

Department of Biology University of North Carolina Greensboro Greensboro NC USA

Department of Ecology Evolution and Behavior University of Minnesota St Paul MN USA

Department of Ecology Evolution and Organismal Biology Iowa State University 251 Bessey Hall Ames IA 50011 USA

Department of Geography King's College London 30 Aldwych London WC2B 4BG UK

Department of Plant and Soil Sciences University of Kentucky Lexington KY 40546 USA

Department of Soil and Environment Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Lennart Hjelms väg 9 75007 Uppsala Sweden

Department of Terrestrial Ecology Netherlands Institute of Ecology Droevendaalsesteeg 10 6708 PB Wageningen The Netherlands

Ecology and Biodiversity Group Department of Biology Utrecht University Padualaan 8 3584 CH Utrecht The Netherlands

Ecology and Genetics University of Oulu PO Box 3000 90014 Oulu Finland

Forest Research Centre Associate Laboratory TERRA School of Agriculture University of Lisbon Lisbon Portugal

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle Jena Leipzig Puschstraße 4 04103 Leipzig Germany

Haweksbury Institute for the Environment Locked Bag 1797 Penrith NSW 2751 Australia

Health and Environmental Sciences Xián Jiaotong Liverpool University Suzhou China

Indian Institute of Science Bangalore 560012 India

Institute of Hydrobiology Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences Na Sadkach 7 370 05 Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic

Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura CONICET Faculty of Agronomy University of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Argentina

Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster University Lancaster LA1 4YQ UK

Leipzig University Institute of Biology Puschstraße 4 04103 Leipzig Germany

Leuphana University of Lüneburg Institute of Ecology Universitätsallee 1 21335 Lüneburg Germany

Mammal Research Institute Department of Zoology and Entomology University of Pretoria Pretoria South Africa

Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg Institute of Biology and Geobotany and Botanical Garden Am Kirchtor 1 06108 Halle Germany

MPG Ranch and University of Montana Montana USA

National Institute of Agricultural Technology Rio Gallegos Santa Cruz Argentina

School of Agriculture Food and Ecosystem Sciences University of Melbourne Parkville VIC 3010 Australia

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research WSL Zuercherstrasse 111 8903 Birmensdorf Switzerland

UFZ Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Department Physiological Diversity Permoserstrasse 15 04318 Leipzig Germany

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