Fig. 2.

Abundance and diversity of bacteria and fungi in different types of biocrusts and bare soil. Quantitative real time PCR estimates of bacterial and fungal abundance and its ratio in bare soil and biocrusts (a). Comparison of alpha diversity of cyanobacteria-, chlorolichen-, and moss-dominated biocrusts and bare soil; Observed species (b), Shannon diversity index (c), and Faith’s phylogenetic diversity index (d). Based on amplicon 16 S rRNA gene data; rarefaction with a depth of 48 009 reads per sample. Boxes limit the 25th- and 7th-percentile with the median presented as line and mean values marked as point inside. Error bars present the 1st- and 99th-percentile and outliers are shown as dots below and above. Significant differences (P < 0.05) are marked by different letters