Methane (CH4) emissions differ between urban and rural wetlands, while the microbial mechanisms associated with these differences have not been clearly identified. Here, we characterized the CH4-cycling microbial communities and their functional metabolic pathways between urban and rural wetlands by using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, metagenomes and CH4 flux measurements. Results showed that rural wetlands primarily utilized acetate/CO2-dependent methanogenic pathway and complete carbon oxidation to CO2 in methanotrophic pathway. Whereas, urban wetlands were dominated by the coenzyme M-dependent methanogenic pathway and trimethylamine catabolism, with methanotrophic pathway characterized by enhanced carbon assimilation capacity. In wetland water, while the abundances of methanogens in urban water were 5-fold lower than in rural water, urban water exhibited stronger microbial cooperation and higher metabolic flexibility, which were associated with an 85 % higher water-atmosphere CH4 flux compared to rural counterparts. In wetland soil, key environmental factors (e.g. higher pH and lower organic matter content compared to rural sites) shaped distinct microbial community structures and CH4 metabolic traits. These differences were shown as higher functional gene diversity, more stable co-occurrence networks, and greater metabolic flexibility, which were linked to a 6-fold higher soil CH4 emissions than in rural soil. This study describes the microbial mechanisms underlying CH4 emission differences between urban and rural wetlands, providing insights into microbially mediated CH4 cycling in urban wetland ecosystems.

The 'Grain for Green' (GFG) project is a key ecological restoration initiative in the Loess Plateau. The land use changes induced by GFG project have the potential to alter the spatial distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC), yet its impact on the lateral loss of SOC was not well understood or insufficiently quantified. This study was to develop a comprehensive framework using a coupled hydro-biological model (SWAT-DayCent) together with incorporating an empirical carbon enrichment coefficient for quantitatively assessing soil and SOC losses in a typical watershed in the Chinese Loess Plateau-the Weihe River Basin (WRB). The results revealed that the GFG project reduced cropland area from 58.64 × 103 km2 in 1995 to 54.55 × 103 km2 in 2020, while forest area expanded from 21.13 × 103 km2 in 1995 to 22.14 × 103 km2 in 2020. Grassland area initially declined from 50.20 × 103 km2 in 1995 to 49.62 × 103 km2 in 2000, before increasing to 51.39 × 103 km2 in 2020. Areas with high soil erosion and SOC loss in the basin are predominantly located in its western and southern regions, while low-value areas are mainly concentrated in the northern and central-eastern regions, exhibiting strong spatial heterogeneity. The GFG project significantly reduced the soil erosion and SOC loss in WRB, thereby enhancing regional soil carbon sequestration capacity. Compared to cropland-to-grassland conversion (CTG), the reduction in soil and SOC losses was more pronounced for cropland-to-forest conversion (CTF). Specifically, under the CTF program, soil erosion decreased from 1179.13 t km-2 yr-1 in the baseline period (1995, before GFG) to 15.24 t km-2 yr-1 (2015, about 99% reduction), and 98% reduction was found for SOC (from 10.29 t km-2 yr-1 to 0.22 t km-2 yr-1). For the CTG program, soil loss decreased by 76% (from 965.29 t km-2 yr-1 to 232.95 t km-2 yr-1), and SOC loss decreased by 74% (from 8.68 t km-2 yr-1 to 2.25 t km-2 yr-1). The findings of this study can be valuable for soil conservation and carbon sink management in the Loess Plateau, and the framework we developed can be potentially applicable in other areas.

Vegetation productivity is not only determined by current environmental conditions but also reflects the lagged influence of past climate and vegetation states. This temporal dependency, often referred to as ecological memory, arises from both antecedent climate conditions (exogenous lagged climatic effects, LCE) and prior vegetation states (endogenous vegetation growth carryover effects, VGC). However, their spatiotemporal variability, relative importance, and responses to future climate change remain poorly understood at the global scale. Here, we develop a unified analytical framework by integrating vector autoregressive model and impulse response functions to disentangle the roles of LCE and VGC in regulating global gross primary productivity (GPP) across space, time, and future climate scenarios. Both components exhibit rapid initial responses followed by gradual decay within approximately five months, yet differ markedly in magnitude, direction, and persistence. LCE show strong hemispheric asymmetry: in the Northern Hemisphere, increases in temperature exert the strongest positive effect on GPP, whereas increases in atmospheric dryness (vapor pressure deficit) produce the strongest negative effect. In contrast, in the Southern Hemisphere, increased precipitation is the dominant positive driver of GPP, while negative responses exhibit greater spatial heterogeneity and show no clear dominant controlling factor, suggesting more complex and regionally varying climatic influences. In contrast, VGC display globally consistent positive responses with substantially greater intensity (17.35 gC m−2 month−1 at a 1-month lag) and minimal hemispheric differences. Across all lag periods, VGC dominate productivity variability, contributing over 84

Long-term management has created pronounced spatial heterogeneity in carbon stocks in subtropical forests. However, how these differences in carbon storage are linked to soil nitrogen cycling and its underlying microbial mechanisms remains poorly understood. Here, we compared key soil nitrogen cycling processes—including net ammonification and nitrification—and the associated microbial functional genes across 33 high-carbon and 27 low-carbon forest sites. Results showed that although total nitrogen, ammonium, and nitrate pools did not differ significantly, nitrogen transformation pathways varied markedly between forest types. Specifically, forests with higher carbon stocks showed higher net ammonification but lower net nitrification, suggesting a greater potential for ammonium retention. Metagenomic analysis revealed a corresponding shift in microbial genetic potential, with ammonification genes (e.g., ureA/ureC) enriched in high-carbon forests, and nitrification genes (e.g., amoA/amoB) more abundant in low-carbon forests. Random forest models identified nitrogen assimilation, dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) and ammonification pathways as key pathways driving net ammonification and nitrification in high-carbon forests. Furthermore, microbial co-occurrence networks were more complex, interconnected, and stable in high-carbon forests, indicating more integrated and stable microbial associations related to N cycling. These results suggest that high-carbon forests may support a conservative, retention-oriented nitrogen cycling mediated by specific microbial traits and network properties, whereas low-carbon forests may be associated with a more open, leaky nitrogen cycling. Our findings provide a microbial-level mechanistic understanding of nitrogen cycling regulation linked to forest carbon storage, offering insights for management strategies aimed at enhancing nutrient retention and long-term ecosystem sustainability.

Nitrate (NO3-) is often the dominant nitrogen species in aquatic ecosystems, but tracing its sources and transformations is always challenging. Atmospheric deposition contributes to nitrogen in aquatic ecosystems both directly and indirectly, but the relative contributions of the two pathways remain unclear. Furthermore, triple isotopes (S15N-S18O-Q17O) have recently been promoted as a more reliable way to quantify source contributions to NO3-in water than dual isotopes (S15N-S18O), but their differences in results remain unknown. In this study, we measured the concentration, isotopes of NO3-and water in Dongting Lake, investigated the nitrogen transformation process, and quantified the source contributions based on the dual and triple isotopes of NO3-using the SIAR model. Our results showed that seasonal differences in ion concentrations and isotopes were generally found in Dongting Lake. The seasonal variations of nitrogen and oxygen isotopes revealed the role of nitrification process and changes in source proportional contributions. The source contributions quantified based on S15N-S18O and S15N-S18O-Q17O are consistent, showing that soil nitrogen sources contribute the most, followed by agricultural fertilizer application and manure and sewage sources. Atmospheric deposition contributes the least to NO3-in Dongting Lake, with an average fraction of less than 9 %. Source contributions quantified on the basis of triple isotopes can effectively reduce uncertainties in the proportional contribution of atmospheric deposition. In Dongting Lake, most of the atmospheric deposition of NO3-is indirect, accounting for about 95.2 % and 89.9 % of the total atmospheric deposition to water NO3-fluxes in wet and dry seasons, respectively. The study reveals the source contribution and transformation process to NO3-in Dongting Lake, and provides an example for quantifying direct and indirect atmospheric deposition to inland lakes. The results provide valuable observational data for modelling the nitrogen cycle in aquatic ecosystems and help to better constrain the nitrogen budget in inland waters.

Intra-annual density fluctuations (IADFs) are wood cells formed in response to abnormal climatic events during the growing season. They are crucial for evaluating the relationship between extreme climatic events and radial growth, as well as for understanding wood quality. However, most existing research has focused on seasonally dry Mediterranean and semi-arid conifer forests, with limited studies conducted in other regions—particularly subtropical forests, where frequent and severe droughts constrain forest productivity and growth. Here, we investigated the occurrence patterns and triggering factors of IADFs in Pinus massoniana plantations along a climate gradient in southern China. We found that latewood IADFs (IADF-L) are the predominant type formed by P. massoniana, whereas earlywood IADFs (IADF-E) are relatively rare. The frequency of IADFs showed a clear spatial pattern, gradually increasing as climate conditions became warmer and wetter. IADF-L frequency was negatively correlated with elevation but positively correlated with tree-ring width. High precipitation in late summer and early autumn, as well as hot and dry conditions during summer, triggered the formation of IADF-Ls, while spring (May) droughts induced IADF-E. The inferred climatic drivers of IADFs were further confirmed by climate-growth relationships based on seasonal wood data and the VS-Lite tree-ring growth model. Our findings provide a valuable foundation for developing management strategies for drought-prone subtropical pine forests. For example, artificial rainfall or supplemental irrigation during summer-autumn dry spells could stimulate the formation of IADF-Ls, thereby enhancing forest growth and carbon sequestration capacity.

Cities experience rapid environmental change; thus, vegetation changes in urban areas can provide insights into how vegetation responds to future environmental change. Although previous research has reported a global rise in indirect effects (ωi) of urban vegetation growth, the specific temporal patterns and changes in this growth improvement remain inadequately investigated. To address this, ωi trends over the past two decades were analyzed, and data-driven artificial intelligence models were developed to predict future growth under various climate scenarios in 4,983 cities worldwide. The analysis revealed that ωi exhibited a logistic increase over time, culminating in an approximate 70% enhancement by 2020. However, predictions from the six models indicate a transition to a slower, linear growth pattern moving forward, with additional growth ranging from 16% to 30% between 2020 and 2100. This marks a stark contrast to the rapid growth observed between 2000 and 2020. The analysis identified CO2 as the primary driver of growth enhancement over the past two decades, but its future influence is expected to decline. Instead, land surface temperature, precipitation patterns, and urban population dynamics are projected to become the dominant factors driving future ωᵢ of vegetation growth. These findings offer critical insights into the future acclimation of urban vegetation, supporting improved forecasting and urban planning under global change.

Urbanization relentlessly consumes vegetated land, yet paradoxically, the remaining urban plants often exhibit enhanced growth. The net outcome of this trade-off, known as the growth offset, has been poorly quantified at a global scale. Here, we developed a new conceptual framework derived from near real-time heterogeneous urban landscape for characterizing the impacts of urbanization on vegetation growth. We applied it across 998 cities worldwide from 2001 to 2022 and evidenced the offset effects of urban environmental contexts (positive enhancement) to physical encroachment (negative replacement) on vegetation greenness and productivity. The results reveal a globally prevalent, generally positive growth offset, with no significant temporal fluctuations. The offset effects can compensate for ~41% or 31% of the vegetation loss due to urbanization (using greenness and productivity as proxy respectively). Landscape characteristics, particularly urbanization intensity, consistently imprint a strong and persistent signature on growth offset. Crucially, we project that strategic greening of gray infrastructure—such as rooftops and walls—can almost fully counteract the vegetation loss caused by urban expansion. Our findings reveal a critical, underappreciated opportunity for cities to mitigate environmental impacts, paving a clear pathway toward ecological resilience and carbon neutrality in an urbanizing world.

Understanding the spatiotemporal variability of climate–growth relationships is critical for predicting forest responses to environmental change and guiding sustainable forest management. However, research on this subject in subtropical conifer species remains limited. We quantified spatiotemporal growth patterns and climatic drivers of Pinus massoniana Lamb across 32 sites spanning the climate gradient of subtropical China. Across the study area, the overall growth of P. massoniana exhibited an increasing trend, with growth declines observed only at a few sites in the central region. Temperature was positively correlated with growth in colder northern regions but negatively correlated with growth in warmer southern regions, whereas growth in the central region showed a significant positive correlation with relative humidity. This indicates that tree growth is primarily constrained by region-specific climatic factors, including high temperatures in the south, drought in the central region, and low temperatures in the north. Furthermore, drought stress has increasingly limited the growth of central and southern P. massoniana populations over time. Simulations based on the VS-Lite model further revealed divergent growth phenological patterns: Northern trees display a unimodal growth pattern, while central and southern populations exhibit a bimodal pattern. Under three projected future climate change scenarios, tree growth in the central and southern regions is projected to exhibit more pronounced declines. This study highlights the importance of accounting for the spatiotemporal variability of climate–growth relationships when developing forest management plans, including those for future plantations. Effective management should prioritize region-specific strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change, ensuring the resilience of P. massoniana subtropical forests.

Theoretical and experimental evidence suggests that tree biodiversity enhances forest ecosystem functioning. However, whether these relationships hold within forest types dominated by different species of the same plant functional type remains unclear. We analysed 772 plots in subtropical China, contrasting high- and low-carbon-sequestration plantations of Cunninghamia lanceolata and Pinus massoniana along a chronosequence, to explore causal links among above-ground carbon storage (AGC), biodiversity, stand structure and environmental factors. We found that the effects of biodiversity on AGC varied across forest types. Specifically, species diversity and functional diversity enhanced AGC in high-carbon-sequestration C. lanceolata plantations, whereas species and functional diversity of co-occurring broadleaf species had negative effects. In high-carbon-sequestration P. massoniana plantations, phylogenetic diversity and diameter at breast height (DBH) variation positively influenced AGC, outweighing the negative effects of species diversity. Low-carbon-sequestration plantations exhibited weak or non-significant biodiversity-AGC relationships. Additionally, soil attributes directly reduced AGC in low-carbon-sequestration C. lanceolata plantations, indicating nutrient limitations under intensive management. Synthesis. We demonstrate that biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships diverge among forest types dominated by different species within the same plant functional type and that biodiversity effects on AGC vary across these plantations. In soil-limited conifer plantations (C. lanceolata), increasing species diversity enhances AGC, whereas in light-demanding conifer plantations (P. massoniana), phylogenetic diversity and DBH variation, capturing species similarity and niche occupancy, better explain AGC than species or functional diversity. We advocate for tailored management strategies that consider dominant tree species identity to optimise biodiversity and carbon sequestration.

The dynamics of soil organic carbon (SOC) in deep soil layers (below 20 cm) represent a critical uncertainty in assessing the carbon sequestration potential of conservation agriculture. This study unravels the response of SOC distribution and stability to 15 years of no-till with straw mulching (NT) versus conventional tillage (CT) in a boreal agroecosystem. Our findings indicate that NT notably enhanced active SOC fractions in deep soil (DS), with increases observed in microbial biomass carbon (MBC) by 104 %, particulate organic carbon (POC) by 112 %, light fraction organic carbon (LFOC) by 42 %, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) by 22 %. More importantly, NT fundamentally altered the composition and stability of the deep SOC pool. It enhanced the stability of microbial necromass carbon (MNC) in DS by elevating the fungal-to-bacterial necromass carbon ratio. Additionally, plant-derived carbon (PDC) demonstrated increased stability in DS under NT, indicated by a 58 % reduction in (Ac/Al)s values, a 28 % decrease in (Ac/Al)v values, and an 84 % increase in V-type phenols. In the 20-100 cm layer, FNC and MBC emerged as key factors influencing SOC contents. Our findings suggest that longterm NT farming fundamentally transforms the distribution and stability of SOC in DS. It not only enriches labile carbon pools but also promotes a shift towards a more persistent carbon pool dominated by fungal necromass and physically protected plant-derived compounds in deep soil. This demonstrates that long-term NT fundamentally affects SOC fractions, origins and stability in DS, providing new insights into carbon biogeochemical cycling under long-term conservation tillage and highlighting its potential to enhance carbon sequestration beyond the topsoil in agricultural systems.

Understanding how urbanization affects vegetation growth within global megacities remains underexplored, particularly with respect to intra-urban intensity gradients, temporal instability, and the climatic and socioeconomic factors that condition indirect effects. We compared urban expansion, enhanced vegetation index (EVI) trends, and potential driving factors across ten global megacities from 2000 to 2018. All cities expanded from 2000 to 2018; newly impervious area ranged from 313.14 km2 in São Paulo to 2377.78 km2 in Shanghai, and the impervious area growth rate ranged from 13.41

Climate warming is intensifying seasonal water cycle patterns, with significant consequences for societies and ecosystems. However, the changes in seasonal precipitation minus evapotranspiration ( P − E ) over recent decades, and the factors contributing to these changes, remain poorly understood—despite a documented decline in annual water availability (annual P − E ). In this study, we used multiple observational datasets to quantify global seasonal P − E shifts from 2000 to 2020. Our findings reveal a significant increasing trend (0.15 mm month −1 yr −1 , p < 0.01) in seasonal range in P − E , primarily driven by a significant global decrease in minimum P − E values, which affected more than 64% of the land areas. This decline was particularly pronounced in both hemispheres, while contrasting trends in maximum P − E between the hemispheres masked any clear global trend. The reduction in minimum P − E was largely attributed to increased evapotranspiration (76%), highlighting its critical role in amplifying seasonal P − E . Climate models are generally able to capture the seasonal variations of P − E , especially at longer time scales, despite existing spatial disparities. Therefore, using suitable climate models to project future P − E seasonality can provide usable information for future adaptation in a warming world. This study underscores the growing imbalance in global seasonal water availability with climate warming.

Frequent droughts pose serious threats to terrestrial ecosystems under global climate change. However, the spatial patterns of drought risk in China over the past few decades and the mechanisms of vegetation response to drought remain unclear, especially on large watershed scales. Here, we applied a cluster analysis method that captures the multidimensional characteristics of drought indicated by the self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI) to quantitatively assess drought risk in China from 1965 to 2018. Furthermore, we assessed the direct and legacy impacts of drought on vegetation dynamics across major river basins in China and identified the major drivers using random forest method. Results showed that high-risk drought areas in China, accounting for similar to 17.1%, were mainly located at the junctions of the Inland River and Yellow River basins, and the Yangtze River and Pearl River basins. Vegetation dynamics in northern China were more sensitive to drought, particularly in the Yellow River and the Hai River basins, with growing-season detrended NDVI and scPDSI correlation coefficients of 0.68 and 0.73, respectively, during 1982-2015. The contribution of precipitation to vegetation growth was higher during droughts, particularly in high-risk drought areas where the coupling between vegetation growth and precipitation increased with intensified drought. Limited by soil moisture availability, pre-growing season drought in northern China exhibited legacy effects on spring phenology, particularly evident in the Hai River basin, where it resulted in an average decrease of 0.32 in spring NDVI anomalies. Overall, this study highlights the vulnerability of vegetation activities to drought stress in arid and semi-arid regions.

Urbanization greatly shapes wetland environment and affects its ecosystem functions. Soil micro-food web, through energy flows, plays a vital role in regulating wetland ecosystem processes and functions. However, little is known about how urbanization affects the composition and energetic structure of soil micro-food webs across different soil depths in wetlands. This knowledge gap limits our understanding of ecological processes throughout the soil profile and hinders the formulation of effective management policies for wetland conservation in urban areas. In this study, soil samples were collected from 46 wetlands along a rural-suburban-urban gradient at three soil depths (0-10, 10-20 and 20-30 cm). The abundances and community compositions of soil biota (i.e. bacteria, fungi and nematodes) were investigated using real-time quantitative PCR and Illumina Miseq sequencing, respectively. Results showed that the surface soils (0-10 cm) showed no significant changes in overall soil biota abundance, while the abundance of nematodes in subsurface layers (10-30 cm) decreased significantly along the urbanization gradient. In addition, the relative abundances of bacterivores and predators decreased, whereas fungivores and herbivores increased along the urbanization gradient. Notably, energy channel analysis showed that urbanization amplified the energy flux through the herbivorous and fungivorous pathways in surface soils but reduced it in deeper layers. Co-occurrence network analysis showed that urbanization reduced the number of network edges and nodes at each soil depth, indicating a decline in soil micro-food web complexity and stability. However, deeper soil (10-30 cm) networks exhibited unexpected higher complexity and potential resilience relative to surface soils. The main factors affecting ecological networks were plant diversity, soil structure, pH, organic carbon and ammonium nitrogen. These results indicate a distinct depth-dependent response of soil micro-food web to urbanization. Our findings highlight the essential role of deep soil biota in wetland resistance to urbanization. Future researches should employ depth-stratified approach and integrate deep soil micro-food web into biogeochemical models for accurate prediction of urban wetland ecosystem functions.

The urban soil microbiome is a pivotal yet enigmatic component of terrestrial ecosystems, particularly in the tropics, global hotspots of both urbanization and biodiversity. Here we conducted dense field measurements, integrating 16S rRNA sequencing and physicochemical analyses to evaluate soil microbial responses along the impervious surface gradient in a tropical city (Haikou, China). We found that microbial biomass carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, along with key carbon- and phosphorus-acquiring enzyme activities, declined significantly with increasing urbanization intensity. In contrast, microbial alpha-diversity followed a pronounced unimodal relationship with urbanization intensity, peaking at approximately 50% Impervious Surface Area. Beyond this threshold, increasing urbanization led to significant biotic homogenization and a marked simplification of microbial co-occurrence networks, indicating erosion of ecological complexity and potential ecosystem resilience. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling further revealed a distinct divergence in the mechanisms governing microbial communities above and below the ecological threshold. Urbanization effects shifted from indirect promotion of microbial biomass and indirect suppression of diversity at low levels to a direct suppressive effect on diversity beyond the critical threshold. These findings demonstrate a threshold-dependent shift from indirect soil nutrients mediated facilitation to direct urbanization-driven suppression of microbial diversity. These findings may provide a conceptual basis for differentiated management strategies across urbanization gradients in tropical ecosystems.

The water cycle, including the seasonal variations in land water availability (precipitation minus actual evapotranspiration (P–ET)), is intensifying with climate warming. These changes in P–ET, particularly the fluctuations between wet and dry seasons, have profound implications for ecosystem functioning and services. Understanding the dynamics and drivers of these changes is crucial for effective water resource management and climate adaptation strategies. Here, we examined seasonal P–ET changes based on multiple datasets across the extratropical Northern Hemisphere over the past two decades. Our results demonstrate a substantial increasing tendency in annual range between wet and dry season P–ET. Specifically, we observed that this trend is driven by both an increase in wet season P–ET and a decrease in dry season P–ET. Further analysis indicated that the changes in wet season P–ET were primarily due to changes in P, whereas the reductions in dry season P–ET were largely attributed to changes in ET. The results reveal a pronounced intra-hemispheric heterogeneity delineating P-dominated versus ET-dominated regimes. Evaluation of 32 state-of-the-art Earth System Models shows that most models capture these seasonal trends during recent decades, although some fail to do so. Our results highlight an enhanced seasonality in hemispheric water availability, driven by distinct changes in wet and dry season dynamics.

As a frequent extreme event under global climate change, drought significantly threatens the net primary productivity (NPP) of terrestrial ecosystems. Although numerous studies have reported drought-induced declines in NPP, the hydroclimatic mechanisms behind remain insufficiently understood. The strong interdependence among temperature, precipitation, and water availability has made it challenging to quantify their independent effects on vegetation productivity under drought stress. Here, we assessed basin-scale NPP responses to drought across mainland China from 1982 to 2018 and applied a ridge regression method to disentangle the individual impacts of multiple hydroclimatic drivers on NPP variability, which overcomes the limitations of conventional correlation-based analyses by accounting for multicollinearity, thereby allowing a more robust identification of the dominant controls on drought-induced NPP variations. Our results revealed pronounced spatial heterogeneity in NPP responses among major basins, with the strongest productivity losses in the Songliao River basin and the Yellow River basin (12.41 g & sdot;C & sdot;m-2 & sdot;yr-1 and 11.71 g & sdot;C & sdot;m-2 & sdot;yr-1, respectively). Ridge-derived coefficients indicated that water availability was the primary driver of NPP sensitivity to drought, and stronger wateravailability control was typically associated with greater NPP losses during drought in water-limited basins. By integrating basin-scale analysis with a multivariate attribution framework, this study isolated the hydroclimatic controls of vegetation productivity under drought. The findings can improve understanding of terrestrial carbon dynamics and be informative for enhancing drought resilience and optimizing water-carbon management strategies in terrestrial ecosystems.

This study focused on the early-, mid- and late-stage of subtropical forests, as represented by Cunninghamia lanceolata plantations (with stand ages of 5, 10, and 20 years), the mixed coniferous-broadleaf forests, and broadleaf forests, respectively. Using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR and high-throughput sequencing techniques, we investigated the variations of rare and dominant soil microbial groups and soil multifunctionality across the succession stages. The results showed that forest succession altered the composition and structure of rare and dominant groups of microbial communities, significantly increased the abundance of dominant and rare soil microorganisms, but reduced their diversity. As succession progressed, the relative abundance of the rare bacterial phylum Planctomycetes significantly increased, the relative abundances of the phyla Bacteroidota, Chloroflexota, Gemmatimonadota, and Proteobacteria significantly decreased, while the relative abundance of the dominant fungal phylum Zygomycota significantly increased. With forest succession, soil multifunctionality significantly improved. Soil multifunctionality indices increased by 51.4%, 67.2%, 80.1%, and 69.2% in the 10-year-old C. lanceolata plantation, the 20-year-old C. lanceolata plantation, coniferous-broadleaved mixed forests, and broad-leaved forests respectively, compared to 5-year-old C. lanceolata plantation. Soil multifunctionality was significantly correlated with the abundance and diversity of dominant microorganisms but not with rare microorganisms, suggesting that dominant soil microorganism species might contribute more to soil multifunctionality than rare species. Soil nutrient content was identified as a key factor influencing rare and dominant microbial groups. Forest succession significantly enhanced soil multifunctionality, and dominant species may play a more critical role in maintaining soil multifunctionality compared to rare species.