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Here, we address this gap by integrating 10 traits related to morphology, behaviour, life history and trophic strategy across broad environmental gradients. RLQ analysis combined with fourth\u2010corner tests revealed two major dimensions of soil protist trait variation. Reduced precipitation drove trait composition towards slower, persistence\u2010oriented strategies, including reduced mobility, narrower niche breadth and increased reliance on asexual reproduction. Nutrient and resource limitation shifted trophic structure away from heterotrophic consumer\u2010related strategies towards autotrophic or mixotrophic energy acquisition. These dimensions were consistently detected in a large\u2010scale field survey and broadly supported by an independent global\u2010change manipulation experiment, indicating that they capture generalizable components of soil protist functional organization. Further functional diversity analyses indicated that environmental gradients primarily constrained the range of occupied trait space rather than consistently reshaping the internal dispersion or evenness of trait distributions. Our study provides a trait\u2010based framework for predicting belowground community assembly and ecosystem functional responses to environmental change.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1111\/mec.70583","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,6]],"date-time":"2026-10-06T05:34:30Z","timestamp":1791264870000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Multidimensional Trait Space of Soil Protists: Ecological Strategies and Environmental Responses"],"prefix":"10.1111","volume":"35","author":[{"given":"Junneng","family":"Yao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Soil Ecology Lab, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences Nanjing Agricultural University  Nanjing China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0734-727X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Stefan","family":"Geisen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of 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