Abstract:Soil fauna may form a complex interaction network with plants, but how to respond to altitude gradients is still poorly understood. Understanding the ecological network in different habitats provides a new approach to detect and predict the stability and its dynamic change mechanism of the system. This study investigated the diversity of soil fauna in the litter and soil layer, woody and herbaceous along the altitude gradient on Dongling Mountain in Beijing, and compared the standardized effect size of soil fauna-plant interaction networks parameters in low-mid-high altitude through null-model. The results showed that the rare taxa of soil fauna had a higher diversity at mid-altitude section, the diversity of woody decreased with altitude, while the diversity of herbaceous increased. The composition of each organism increased with altitude distance, and there was a significant clustering distribution pattern. The parameters of the soil fauna-plant interaction networks not only changed with altitude, but also differed between the litter and soil layers, woody and herbaceous. In general, the altitude changes of the soil fauna-woody interaction network are mainly related to the diversity of soil fauna, while the soil fauna-herbaceous network are related to the diversity of herbaceous. There is an adaptive transition from soil fauna-woody interaction network to soil fauna-herbaceous network along the altitudinal gradient. This study explored the interaction between different layers of soil fauna and plants along the same altitude gradient, which is of great importance for further understanding of the coexistence mechanism of various taxa in mountain ecosystems.