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Aims Anthropogenic disturbances due to human economic activities may affect ecosystem services, which are the benefits provided by the ecosystem properties, such as soil water content and soil fertility. Also, these disturbances affect plant community biodiversity and cover, which are also known to affect multiple ecosystem properties. However, the strength of the relative effects of the disturbance itself and of the effect that is mediated by changes in the plant community is still unclear. Questions We evaluated the relative direct and indirect effects (mediated by changes in the plant community) of the anthropogenic disturbances on ecosystem multifunctionality. Location Dry forests within the Sustainable Development Reserve Ponta do Tubarão, northeastern Brazil. Methods We measured standing biomass, litter mass, soil fertility and soil water content in 52 vegetation plots along a gradient of anthropogenic disturbance. Also, we measured woody plant cover and species’ functional traits to characterize the plant community functional structure. We measured livestock grazing, selective logging and past clear‐cuts as proxies of anthropogenic disturbance to create an index that characterizes the additive effect of these human activities. By building a theoretical model using the structural equation modelling approach, we investigated how the plant community changes in cover and biodiversity due to anthropogenic disturbances mediate changes in ecosystem properties. Results Our results show that anthropogenic disturbances had negative effects on ecosystem properties. Plant cover loss caused by anthropogenic disturbances was the major determinant of the negative effect of disturbances. The functional structure of the plant community had a weak effect on these properties. Conclusions By assessing the effect of human activities on multifunctionality, we found a stronger negative effect of anthropogenic disturbances when compared to its effect on single ecosystem properties. The recovery of plant cover should be a major focus of projects aiming to restore and maintain the multifunctionality of this dryland.

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