TABLE 1.

Statistical results (ANOVA) of fire effect and vegetation cover on different soil physicochemical characteristics (NEA = nitrifying enzyme activity), on the abundance and transcripts of total microbial communities and nitrifying communities (archaeal nitrifier (AOA) and bacterial nitrifier (AOB))

	Variable	Transformation	Cover (df = 2)		Fire (df = 1)		Cover * fire (df = 2)
			F‐value	p‐value	F‐value	p‐value	F‐value	p‐value
Soil properties	NEA	Square root	18.236	<0.001	4.229	<0.05	0.916	0.414
	Nitrate (N‐NO3 ‐)		0.260	0.773	0.0001	0.992	4.189	<0.05
	Ammonium (N‐NH4 +)		9.661	<0.001	4.475	<0.05	2.519	0.101
	Soil Water Content (SWC)		2.359	0.116	30.430	<0.001	5.160	<0.05
	pH		8.198	<0.01	0.072	0.782	0.013	0.987
	Total nitrogen		6.260	<0.01	0.291	0.591	0.780	0.470
	Total carbon		4.369	<0.05	0.036	0.851	1.085	0.354
Total microbial abundance and activity	Total archaea (16S rRNA)	log	0.209	0.812	0.637	0.432	0.778	0.471
	Total archaeal transcripts (16S rRNA)		2.890	0.074	0.260	0.614	2.719	0.086
	Total bacteria (16S rRNA)	Square root	0.535	0.592	0.008	0.929	0.767	0.476
	Total bacterial transcripts (16S rRNA)	Square root	4.810	<0.05	30.688	<0.001	3.778	<0.05
	Total fungi (18S rRNA)		9.383	<0.001	51.514	0.476	0.236	0.792
	Total fungal transcripts (18S rRNA)	Square root	9.383	<0.01	51.514	<0.001	4.992	<0.01
	Bacteria:Fungi ratio	log	33.043	<0.001	0.316	0.579	0.589	0.563
	Bacterial:Fungal transcripts ratio	Boxcox transformation λ = −0.465	8.722	<0.01	72.190	<0.001	0.634	0.539
Nitrifier abundance and activity	AOA		10.826	<0.001	0.288	0.596	4.190	0.059
	AOA transcripts	Square root	1.890	0.170	16.418	<0.001	3.841	0.068
	AOB	Square root	5.794	<0.01	1.799	0.083	1.920	0.170
	AOA:(AOA + AOB) ratio		3.933	0.066	2.350	0.145	2.768	0.117
	AOA:total Archaea ratio		3.933	0.066	1.603	0.236	1.934	0.185
	AOA:Archaeal transcripts ratio		1.270	0.309	0.618	0.445	1.160	0.298
	AOB:Bacterial ratio	log	6.619	<0.01	1.396	0.249	1.032	0.373

The interaction between fire and vegetation cover was removed when not significant.