Beta (β) diversity
For bacterial β-diversity, the results of ANOSIM revealed significant differences among the sampling sites with stress value = 0.063, R = 0.6997 and p < 0.05(Fig.4a) , thereby indicating that altitude has a significant role in shaping the structure of the soil bacterial community. For soil fungal communities, more distinct clustering in terms of sites was observed and ANOSIM once again showed significant differences among the sites with stress value of 0.073, R = 0.5955 and p < 0.05 (Fig.4b) . Therefore, the results clearly demonstrate that both the soil bacterial and fungal communities are highly influenced by altitude.