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Plant diversity is critical to the functioning of ecosystems, potentially mediated in part by interactions with soil biota. Here, we characterised multiple groups of soil biota across a plant diversity gradient in a long‐term experiment. We then subjected soil samples taken along this gradient to drought, freezing and a mechanical disturbance to test how plant diversity affects the responses of soil biota and growth of a focal plant to these disturbances. High plant diversity resulted in soils that were dominated by fungi and associated soil biota, including increased arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and reduced plant‐feeding nematodes. Disturbance effects on the soil biota were reduced when plant diversity was high, resulting in higher growth of the focal plant in all but the frozen soils. These results highlight the importance of plant diversity for soil communities and their resistance to disturbance, with potential feedback effects on plant productivity.

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Biogeochemical approaches were applied to enhance the study on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) pollution in an urban waterway. Chemical characterizations of PAHs in the studied area were identified, geochemical factors were revealed, and related mechanisms were discussed. It was found that, during summer, an early diagenetic process in the sediment could play a major role for the existence of high PAH concentrations, especially high molecular weight PAHs (≥ 4 rings), in the water column and sediment porewater. This effect could vary with tidal cycling, and higher PAH concentration in the water column would be expected during low tide. Other potential pollution sources were also evaluated in the studied creek. Results showed that pyrogenic sources dominated in the creek, generally. Nevertheless, petroleum products from a metal recycling plant could be an important point source to the waterway during wet weather. Comparing with previous studies in other waterways of the same watershed and published literature suggested that the limited toxicity to the ecosystem was only detected in sediments. More information needs to be collected during low tide for a more objective evaluation of PAH toxicity in the creek.

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