3.3 Relationships between soil properties, microbial community
composition, slope gradient and position
Soil bacterial composition was positively correlated with WSA, CC, SOM,
CEC, AN, AP, AK, MBC, UR, and PHS but negatively correlated with BD, pH,
DOC, TDN, MBN, CAT, INV, slope gradient and slope position
(p<0.05) (Table 5). The fungi community was positively
correlated with BD, WSA, AP, TDN, MBC, phosphatase, catalases, and slope
position but negatively correlated with CC, OM, CEC, PH, AN, AK, DOC,
MBN, UR, INV, slope gradient and position (Table 5). RDA indicated a
clear difference in the composition of bacterial and fungal communities
at different slope gradients (Fig. 3). The first two axes explained
96.9% of the overall variability for the bacterial community
composition (Fig. 3a). The first two axes explained 94.7% of the
overall variability for the fungal community (Fig. 3b). Soil BD, CAT,
pH, INV, UR, CC, OC, and AN were significantly correlated with soil
microbial community.