Soil Microbial Network Complexity Governs Network Stability Across Pinus massoniana Stand Development

The stand development of plantation under the impacts of management practices has altered microbially mediated biogeochemical cycles. However, microbial network stability in response to stand development and its relationships with network complexity remain unclear. This study focused on Pinus massoniana plantation with four stand ages: 10, 20, 30, and 36 years (PM10, PM20, PM30, and PM36, respectively) in southwest China. It analyzed the soil microbial diversity and ecological network topological properties under the stand development of plantation. We found that increasing stand age leads to an enhancement in the complexity of microbial networks (e.g., the increased number of nodes, edges and average degree, lower average path length, and eigenvector centralization), and this changed network complexity is strongly related to microbial structure stability (network robustness and vulnerability), suggesting that soil network complexity supports structure stability. Microbial network complexity and stability were strongly related to community diversity and soil nutrients, indicating that there is a key relationship between microbial networks and soil nutrient cycling in P. massoniana plantation. Increased stand age plays a key role in driving microbial networks by altering soil nutrients and microbial diversity, with total phosphorus and fungal α‐diversity having greater impacts on this process. Our results indicate that increasing stand age leads to changes in microbial community and nutrient content, which can enhance community stability. Therefore, management strategies for sustainable plantations should focus not only on microbial diversity but on maintaining the soil ecological processes that support complex and stable microbial networks.