The elevational patterns and key drivers of soil microbial communities have intense soil layer-dependent and temporal specificity

Soil microbial community composition changes along elevational gradients and is vital to understand the response of biogeochemical processes to climate change. However, previous studies have reported conflicting results on the elevation patterns of soil microbial communities. We therefore undertook a comprehensive study spanning four years where we collected soil core samples at five different elevations across the gradient of the alpine gorge region in southwestern China. Unlike other studies which included limited sampling frequency, we included five different sampling times based on seasonal changes and further included two layers of soil samples in our study.