Table 1. Relationship between soil parameters and phylotype richness, phylogenetic diversity and phylotype diversity for the whole community and Thaumarchaeota.

Variables	OTUs	Faith’s PD	Shannon Index
Whole community
CN ratio	–	0.13(l*)	0.24(l**)
pH	–	–	0.35(q**)
Total Carbon	0.18(l*)	0.17(l*)	0.58(q***)
Ammonia	0.28(l**)	0.21(l**)	0.56(q***)
Nitrate	0.27(l**)	0.27(l**)	0.34(q**)
Phosphorus	–	0.21(q*)	0.44(q***)
Elevation	0.36(c**)	0.50(c***)	0.89(c***)
Potassium	0.29(l**)	0.35(q**)	0.70(q***)
Thaumarchaeota
CN ratio	–	0.13(l*)	0.21(l**)
pH	–	–	0.23(q*)
Total Carbon	0.15(q*)	–	0.46(q***)
Ammonia	0.15(l*)	0.17(l**)	0.52(q***)
Nitrate	0.12(l*)	0.29(l**)	0.34(q**)
Phosphorus	–	0.18(q*)	0.40(q***)
Elevation	0.34(c**)	0.44(c***)	0.88(c***)
Potassium	0.22(l**)	0.30(q**)	0.64(q***)

We tested three models (linear-l, quadratic-q, and cubic-c) to describe the relatioships; model selection was carried out based on adjusted R² and RMSE (root mean square error; value not shown). Significance level was shown with***P<0.001;

^**P<0.01; and P<0.05; only relationships which were significant are shown in table.