Soil carbon (C) cycling is mainly mediated by microorganisms. Natural restoration projects have been widely implemented in the degraded karst areas of southwest China. However, their impacts on the functional genes and microbial communities involved in soil C cycling have not been well...

The great habitat heterogeneity is a crucial contributor to the high species richness (SR) in karst forests. Yet, the driving factor behind the alterations in SR patterns during natural recovery remains unclear. In this study, forest dynamics plots were established along the natural restoration...