BSCs	Biological soil crusts
PCoA	Principal coordinate analysis
ANOSIM	Analysis of Similarities
RDA	Redundancy Analysis
PCR	Polymerase Chain Reaction
SL	Salix psammophila
NT	Caragana korshinskii
WL	Salix cheilophila
XYY	Populus simonii
SWC	soil water content
SOM	soil organic matter
TN	total nitrogen
TC	total carbon
AP	available phosphorus
AK	available potassium
MBC	microbial biomass carbon
MBN	microbial nitrogen
MBP	microbial phosphorus
CAT	catalase
URE	urease
SUC	sucrase
ALP	alkaline phosphatase
COG	Clusters of Orthologous Groups of proteins