Plant Diversity Exerts a Stronger Influence than Short-Term Climate Manipulations on the Structure of Soil Bacterial Communities

in medium-diversity plots that experienced elevated precipitation, suggesting a predicted potential for enhanced organic matter decomposition. Despite overall stability in alpha diversity, the interaction between plant diversity and warming significantly modulated bacterial diversity and dominance patterns. Our findings highlight that plant diversity plays a key role in mediating soil bacterial responses to simulated climate factors in the short term. Incorporating these plant-soil feedback mechanisms into ecological models appears crucial for advancing predictions of ecosystem dynamics under future climate conditions.