3 | Results
3.1 |Microbial richness and composition in rhizosphere vs. non-rhizosphere
Microbial communities differed markedly between rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere regions in OTU richness (Figure 1). The bacterial richness was significantly lower in rhizosphere than in non-rhizosphere (Figure 1a), and so was the fungal richness (Figure 1b).
The bacterial community composition differed greatly between the two regions (Figure 1c). This was more evident in the relative abundances of three dominant bacterial phyla, Proteobacteria ,Acidobacteria, and Actinobacteria . For example, the relative abundance of Proteobacteria was 74.4% in rhizosphere, but decreased to 23.6% in non-rhizosphere (Figure 1e, Table S2). In contrast, the relative abundances of Acidobacteriaand Actinobacteria were 6.4 % and 5.9 % in rhizosphere, but increased to 21.2% and 26.7 % in non-rhizosphere, respectively (Figure 1e, Table S2). The fungal community composition also differed between the two regions (Figure 1 d). For example, the relative abundance ofAscomycota was 48.8% in rhizosphere but decreased to 38.6% in non-rhizosphere (Figure 1f, Table S2).