A principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) of soil fungal communities based on Bray‒Curtis distances showed that PCoA1 and PCoA2 explained 27.0% and 13.1% of the variation in soil fungal communities in the 0-5 cm soil layer, respectively, with a cumulative contribution of 40.1% (Fig. 5a). ANOSIM analysis showed significant differences among soil fungal communities regardless of grazing exclusion or grassland type and the interaction of the two (P <0.001; P<0.007; P <0.002). In the 5-10 cm soil layer, PCoA1 and PCoA2 explained 22.7% and 10.5% of the variation in soil fungal communities respectively, with a cumulative contribution of 33.2% (Fig. 5b). ANOSIM analysis showed significant differences among soil fungal communities regardless of grazing exclusion or grassland type and the interaction of the two (P <0.001; P<0.009; P <0.003).

Fig. 4. Soil fungal α-diversity as affected by grazing exclusion and grassland type. Error bars indicate standard errors (3 replicate sites). The lowercase letters indicate significant differences among different grassland types (P < 0.05).TD, temperate desert; TS, temperate steppe; MM, mountain meadow. Fig. a represents the 0-5 cm soil fungal Shannon index; Fig. b represents the 0-5 cm soil fungal Simpson index; Fig. c represents the 0-5 cm soil fungal Chao1 index; Fig. d represents the 5-10 cm soil fungal Shannon index; Fig. e represents the 0-5 cm soil fungal Simpson index; Fig. f represents the 0-5 cm soil fungal Chao1 index.