TABLE 2.

Least square means of Shannon index and probability of depth effects on subsystem level 1 functions detected in different soil depths. Values are means (n = 15).

Depth	Cell wall and capsule	Functions
0–15	3.14 a	Virulence, disease and defense	Sulfur metabolism	Secondary metabolism	RNA metabolism	Respiration	Regulation and cell signaling
15–30	3.12 b	2.95 a	2.06 a	2.181 ab	3.03 a	2.73 a	2.42 a
30–60	3.1 b	2.93 b	2.04 b	2.177 a	3.02 b	2.69 b	2.37 b
p-Value	<0.0001	2.92 c	2.03c	2.154 b	3.02 b	2.66 c	2.36 b
		<0.0001	<0.0001	0.031	<0.0001	<0.0001	<0.0001
	Protein metabolism
0–15	3.99 a	Photosynthesis	Nucleosides and nucleotides	Miscellaneous	Metabolism of aromatic compounds	Membrane transport	Dormancy and sporulation
15–30	3.586 b	0.1 a	2.17	3.61 a	3.044 a	3.175 a	1.17 a
30–60	3.585 b	0.07 b	2.18	3.6 b	3.039 a	3.148 b	1.14 b
p-Value	<0.0001	0.06 b	2.17	3.6 b	3.029 b	3.145 b	1.13 b
		0.001	0.29	<0.0001	0.003	<0.0001	0.001
	DNA metabolism
0–15	2.687 a	Clustering-based subsystems	Amino acids and derivatives	Fatty acids, lipids, and isoprenoids	Cofactors, vitamins, prosthetic groups, pigments	Phages, prophages, transposable elements, plasmids	Motility and chemotaxis
15–30	2.678 b	4.573 a	3.69 a	2.26 a	2.98 a	1.94	1.26
30–60	2.668 c	4.553 b	3.69 a	2.24 b	2.98 ab	1.81	1.26
p-Value	<0.0001	4.546c	3.68 b	2.23 c	2.97 b	1.82	1.27
		<0.0001	<0.0001	<0.0001	0.026	0.08	0.07
	Cell division and cell cycle
0–15	2.081 a	Iron acquisition and metabolism	Stress response	Carbohydrates	Potassium metabolism	Nitrogen metabolism	Phosphorus metabolism
15–30	2.072ab	2.06	2.85 a	3.79 a	0.417 b	1.59 a	1.17 b
30–60	2.071 b	2.05	2.82 b	3.78 b	0.424 b	1.53 b	1.2 a
p-Value	0.014	2.07	2.8 c	3.77 c	0.504 a	1.49 c	1.2 a

Different letters within each row and p-values in bold indicate statistically significant differences (ANOVA followed by Tukey HSD; α = 0.05).