Figure 3

Comparisons of bacterial communities taxonomic and functional diversities between farmland and alpine meadow soils in TP. (A) Relationships between bacterial taxonomic and functional alpha diversity (Simpson Diversity Index, 1/D) of farmland samples (red dot) and alpine meadow samples (green dot). (B) Box plot of the Bray-Curtis distances estimated based on taxonomic composition of bacterial communities in upper and lower layers of TP soils. U: Upper (blue), L: lower (green) and U vs. L: upper vs. lower (yellow) layer soil samples from two major TP ecosystems farmlands (left) and alpine meadow (right). Components of the box are: top of the box, upper hinge; midline of box, median; bottom of box, lower hinge; bars, 1.5 times length of box (1.5 times the horizontal spread); dots, values that are larger or smaller than 1.5 times the horizontal spread of the distribution, plus the upper or lower hinge. (C) Box plot of the Bray-Curtis distances estimated based on functional composition of bacterial communities in upper and lower layers of TP soils. (D) Comparison of the bacterial richness between the upper (3 ~ 5 cm) and the lower (18 ~ 20 cm) layers of the soil samples at 10 different sites. The red circles represent the genera which have at least twice the amount of bacteria in the upper layer than in the lower layer; the green circles represent the genera which have at least twice the amount of bacteria in the lower layer than in the upper layer.