Previous studies have determined the importance of soil biodiversity for maintaining ecosystem services and multifunctionality. However, the relationship between soil meso-fauna biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality in the real world has yet to be evaluated. In this study, the relationships between soil meso-fauna community compositions and ecosystem multifunctionality along a coastal-inland distance gradient were investigated, including 1 km (1T), 15 km (2T), 30 km (3T), 45 km (4T), and 60 km (5T) locations. Our results showed that the soil properties were significantly indicated a decreasing trend after the 3T line. However, the soil meso-fauna biodiversity indices were observed to have all reached the peak value at the 4T line. In addition, it was found that the soil meso-fauna biodiversity indices were highly correlated with the ecosystem multifunctionality. These findings further confirmed the fact that the contributions of the soil meso-fauna community biodiversity indices (59.34%) to ecosystem multifunctionality were as important as, or even more important than, those of the soil environmental factors (40.66%). Therefore, it was concluded that the variations in ecosystem multifunctionality were closely related to the changes in the soil meso-fauna community biodiversity. In other words, soil meso-fauna community compositions can be effectively used to predict ecosystem multifunctionality along coastal-inland ecosystems. These findings, are the first study to provide empirical evidence linking soil meso-fauna community compositions to ecosystem multifunctionality in real-world coastal-inland ecosystems. Certainly, future studies that combine multi-trophic levels and consider their interactions will be able to clarify the relationships between the below-ground soil fauna communities and ecosystem multifunctionality.

中文翻译：

---

土壤中型动物群落组成预测沿渤海湾沿海-内陆梯度的生态系统多功能性

先前的研究已经确定了土壤生物多样性对于维持生态系统服务和多功能性的重要性。然而，现实世界中土壤中型动物生物多样性与生态系统多功能性之间的关系还有待评估。本研究考察了沿海岸-内陆距离梯度的土壤中型动物群落组成与生态系统多功能性之间的关系，包括1 km（1T）、15 km（2T）、30 km（3T）、45 km（4T）和 60 公里 (5T) 位置。我们的研究结果表明，土壤性质在 3T 线后显着呈下降趋势。然而，观察到土壤中型动物生物多样性指数均在 4T 线处达到峰值。此外，发现土壤中型动物生物多样性指数与生态系统多功能性高度相关。这些发现进一步证实了土壤中型动物群落生物多样性指数（59.34%）对生态系统多功能性的贡献与土壤环境因子（40.66%）一样重要，甚至更重要。因此，可以得出结论，生态系统多功能性的变化与土壤中型动物群落生物多样性的变化密切相关。换句话说，土壤中型动物群落组成可以有效地用于预测沿海-内陆生态系统的生态系统多功能性。这些发现，是第一项提供经验证据的研究，将土壤中型动物群落组成与现实世界沿海-内陆生态系统中的生态系统多功能性联系起来。当然，未来结合多营养水平并考虑它们的相互作用的研究将能够阐明地下土壤动物群落与生态系统多功能性之间的关系。