Fig 1.
Protocol workflow for PLFA (left) and ELFA (right) methods. GC-MS, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
Table 1.
Mean coefficient of variation across 43 fatty acids for each site for PLFA and ELFA methods.
Fig 2.
a) Redundancy analysis of soil microbial community composition using PLFAs across six oriental oak sites in East China. Two insignificant (P > 0.05) variables, i.e., sand and altitude, are removed. b) Redundancy analysis of soil microbial community composition using ELFAs.
Fig 3.
Bivariate correlations between PLFA and ELFA biomarkers.
a) total PLFAs vs. total ELFAs; b) bacterial PLFAs vs. bacterial ELFAs; c) fungal PLFAs vs. fungal ELFAs; d) the ratio of fungi to bacteria (PLFA) vs. the ratio of fungi to bacteria (ELFA); e) the ratio of gram-positive bacteria to gram-negative bacteria (PLFA) vs. the ratio of gram-positive bacteria to gram-negative bacteria (ELFA); f) relative abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (PLFA) vs. relative abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (ELFA).
Fig 4.
Bivariate correlations among microbial and environmental variables.
The left seven columns are determined based on PLFA biomarkers and the right seven columns are determined based on ELFA biomarkers. The color indicates the direction of correlation and the number represents the correlation coefficient. A circle is present if Bonferroni-adjusted P < 0.1, with circle size indicating strength of the correlation. F/B ratio, the ratio of fungi to bacteria; G+/Gā ratio, the ratio of gram-positive bacteria to gram-negative bacteria; AM Fungi%, relative abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi; MAP, mean annual precipitation.