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.