Fig. 3

Differential abundance patterns of protist groups in rhizosphere and bulk soil over time. Green color indicates log2-fold abundance increase in the rhizosphere, while brown color indicates an increase of abundance in bulk soil. Only groups with a log2-fold change higher than 0.8 and lower than − 0.8 are represented in the figure. Significant differences for the groups had an FDR corrected p value < 0.01. Feeding/nutrition preferences are indicated based on published reports (see “Materials and methods” section) for those groups identified at the genus level and that were detected as prevalent in the rhizosphere. b = bacterivore, o= omnivore (feeds on bacteria and protists), e = eukaryvore, pp = plant pathogen, ph = photosynthesis, ap = animal pathogen, fp = pathogen of fungi. SL = Sandy Loam site, CL = Clay Loam site. For the SL site n-values were as follows: Rhizosphere-T2 = 21, T3 = 12, T4 = 20, T5=28; bulk-T2 = 26, T3 = 29, T4 = 30, T5 = 29. For the CL site n-values were: Rhizosphere-T2 = 19, T3 = 24, T4 = 15, T5 = 21; bulk-T2 = 29, T3 = 28, T4 = 29, T5 = 28