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.