FIG 3.

Nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordination from the weighted UniFrac dissimilarity matrix of the alpine soil bacterial communities across the first and second dimensions. The points represent the individual sites according to their pH (red, lowest; blue, highest pH). The effect and direction of environmental parameters are superimposed by arrows (origin = point 0,0). Only parameters with a P value of <0.05 using envfit() are included. BSW, bulk soil gravimetric water content; GSW, bulk soil gravimetric water content; Lat, latitude; tav, monthly average temperature; swb, annual average site water balance accounting for soil properties; ST, soil temperature at depth of −5 cm; N, bulk nitrogen content; Mn, MnO; EC, electrical conductivity; Si, SiO₂; Psi, phyllosilicate; Na, Na₂; Qua, quartz; Mg, MgO; H, bulk hydrogen content; Ni, NiO; N15, stable isotopic nitrogen ratio; Cal, calcite; OM, organic matter content; slop, terrain slope; MiC, mineral carbon content; CN, C:N ratio; Ca, CaO; top, topographic position; min, monthly moisture index; prc, monthly mean precipitation sum; pda, number of precipitation days per growing season; C13, stable isotopic carbon ratio; sfro, average annual number of frost days during the growing season.