Table 2 Spearman’s rank correlations of microbial activity with microbial diversity, abundance, soil pH, and SOC concentration (estimated using Mantel tests)

Bacterial α-diversity

0.625

0.045

–

–

Bacterial γ-diversity

0.692

0.034

Bacterial β-diversity

0.794

0.002

–

–

qPCR (bacteria)

0.518

0.053

–

–

Fungal α-diversity

–

–

0.571

0.039

Fungal γ-diversity

0.483

0.044

Fungal β-diversity

–

–

0.267

0.227

qPCR (fungi)

–

–

0.829

0.001

pH

0.726

0.004

0.304

0.265

SOC

0.218

0.240

0.507

0.037