Figure 1. Schematic illustration of the factorial design of the microcosm glasshouse experiment to manipulate both soil and plant diversity simultaneously. (a) Dilution to extinction approach to create three soils diversity levels (10-0 – High, 10-2 – Intermediate, 10-6 – Low). (b) Plant diversity gradients – from a pool of six plant species with different functional groups (C3, C4 and N-fixing). The experiment timeline consists of Soil diversity manipulation, microbial biomass recovery, preparation of microcosms, plant diversity establishment, two weeks of drought treatment and recovery for four weeks after rewetting. There were total 203 microcosms and five sampling events.