Fig. 3.

Global relationships between biodiversity and productivity in natural grasslands at the plot level. Marginal histograms show the frequency distribution of biodiversity and productivity across plots (N = 9640 plots). The 151 grids were divided into three equal groups depending on their mean productivity: low, medium, and high productivity (with 50–51 grids each), corresponding to different colors of the points (plots). Repeating the structural equation model analysis for the three groups separately, the partial effects $\left(\mathrm{mean}\pm \mathrm{SD}\right)$ of biodiversity on productivity along the productivity gradient are shown in the inset. Each bar corresponds to points of the same color. Symbols are slightly displaced at x-axis to improve readability. Asterisks indicate a significant difference from zero: *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001. Source data are provided as a Source Data file