Windfarm construction alters soil multinutrient cycling by destabilizing microfauna community in a mountain ecosystem

In recent decades, investors attracted to wind power's promise of zero-emission electricity have fueled the proliferation of large windfarms across the world. However, the effects of windfarm construction with different land use subtypes (i.e., wind turbine, waste slag, and construction production and living areas) on soil microfauna community stability and subsequent consequences for ecosystem functioning remains poorly understood. Here, we evaluated how these three land use types affect soil microfauna community stability relative to natural vegetation types (forest, shrubland, and grassland) in a mountain area. We found that all three windfarm land use subtypes reduced soil multinutrient cycling and microfauna community stability compared with natural ecosystems. However, among these natural ecosystems, reductions of soil multinutrient cycling were 66.36% and 79.10% lower in grassland than in forest and shrubland, respectively. Reductions of soil nematode community stability were 62.15% and 77.22% lower in grassland than in forest and shrubland; as well as soil protist community stability were 74.01% and 56.74%, respectively. Interspecific interactions and environmental filtering jointly drove variation in soil microfauna community stability. Soil microfauna community stability was significantly and positively linked to soil multinutrient cycling, which has the potential to initiate cascading ecological consequences. Our finding implies that grasslands may be more suitable than shrublands or forests for windfarm development based on the responses of soil microfauna communities.