This dataset contains data and code that support the results in Weil, S.-S., Martinez-Almoyna, C., Piton, G., Renaud, J., Boulangeat, L., Foulquier, A., ... & Thuiller, W. (2021) Strong links between plant traits and microbial activities but different abiotic drivers in mountain grasslands. Journal of Biogeography, 48(11), 2755-2770.

We used an extensive plant-soil dataset that covers 14 elevational gradients (between 1500 and 2800 m of elevation) distributed over the whole French Alps to analyse the spatial co-dependencies between the plant and soil compartments. We ran a Graphical Lasso that extracts the direct and indirect linkages between plant functional composition, soil microbial activities, and environmental conditions (local climate and soil properties).

Our main results are 1) that plant traits are tightly associated with microbial activities, the former being driven by climate and the latter by soil properties; 2) that the dominance of specific plant traits was more important than their diversity to determine plant-soil linkages; and 3) that soil microbes invested strongly in nutrient acquisition in sites with conservative plant traits and reduced organic matter quality.