Fig 2. Nestedness in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities along the soil pH gradient in the trap culture surveys.
Rhizosphere soils of M. sinensis were collected from Rankoshi, Hazu, Nago, Atsuma, Ishikari, Mukawa sites and subjected to trap culture with M. sinensis seedlings for community analysis. The names of phylotypes were defined based on the genus to which they were assigned (S2 Fig) and indicated on the left of matrix. The columns (sites) and rows (phylotypes) were sorted by the mean-pH value of the soil samples (mean ± SD was indicated above the matrix) and by occurrence (number of site at which they occurred was indicated on the right of the matrix), respectively. Darkness of the cells indicates percentage relative abundance of the phylotypes. Significant nestedness was observed among the columns (NODFcolumn = 55.95, Z = 1.79, P = 0.037), but an anti-nestedness pattern was also observed among the rows (WNODFrow = 18.97, Z = −16.03, P < 0.001).