Similarity and difference in vegetation structure of three desert shrub communities under the same temperate climate but with different microhabitats

Botanical Studies

Table 2 Soil parameters (means ± standard error) and their Pearson correlation coefficients in three communities (EDC, STC and ASC)

Component	SOM (g kg^–1)	TN (g kg^–1)	TP (g kg^–1)	TK (g kg^–1)	AN (mg kg^–1)	pH	EC (μs cm^-1)	IBL
Community type (n = 36, 28 and 13 respectively)
EDC	2.01 ± 0.08a	0.14 ± 0.008a	0.29 ± 0.011b	19.23 ± 1.04a	28.4 ± 2.21a	8.21 ± 0.016a	65.4 ± 1.30a	0.68 ± 0.04a
STC	1.77 ± 0.09a	0.14 ± 0.006a	0.35 ± 0.014a	11.09 ± 0.82b	28.5 ± 1.38a	8.18 ± 0.026a	60.3 ± 3.39a	0.54 ± 0.06b
ASC	1.42 ± 0.05b	0.10 ± 0.003b	0.31 ± 0.012ab	6.69 ± 0.53c	15.8 ± 1.19b	8.41 ± 0.044b	42.0 ± 2.65b	0.25 ± 0.08c
Soil parameters (n = 77)
TN	0.820**
TP	-0.071	0.095
TK	0.258*	0.108	-0.560**
AN	0.354**	0.389**	0.042	0.153
pH	-0.282*	-0.295**	-0.122	-0.296**	-0.188
EC	0.471**	0.449**	-0.241*	0.523**	0.390**	-0.265*
IBL	0.519**	0.518**	-0.127	0.456**	0.263*	-0.353**	0.505**

EDC = E. distachya community, STC = S. terrae-albae community, ASC = A. songarica community. Different letters indicate significant (P < 0.05) differences among communities. *indicates significant correlation (P < 0.05); **indicates greatly significant correlation (P < 0.01).