Aiming to clarify the spatial distribution characteristics of soil microbial assemblages and the environmental factors shaping them across a narrow altitudinal transect, this investigation concentrated on the surface soil layer within naturally occurring mixed forests of Picea crassifolia and Betula platyphylla, situated in the elevation band from 2400 to 2800 m along the southern flank of the Qilian Mountains. Leveraging the Illumina NextSeq 2000 high-throughput sequencing platform, integrated with α- and β-diversity analyses and redundancy analysis (RDA), we systematically characterized the composition and diversity traits of soil bacterial and fungal communities, as well as their associations with environmental factors. Notably, the bacterial communities were dominated by Pseudomonadota, Actinomycetota, and Acidobacteria with the abundance of Pseudomonadota decreasing with increasing altitude and that of Acidobacteria increasing with increasing altitude. Furthermore, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were the dominant phyla in the fungal community. In contrast, bacterial α-diversity—as estimated by the Ace index—showed no significant variation across altitudes. Yet, the fungal alpha diversity metrics—namely Ace and Chao1—were markedly elevated at the 2800 m elevation relative to those observed at both intermediate and lower-altitude locations. Importantly, fungal diversity and community composition showed stronger altitudinal differentiation than bacterial communities in this dataset. Moreover, soil pH, total phosphorus, organic carbon, litter C:N:P stoichiometric ratios, and microbial biomass C:N:P stoichiometric ratios were strongly associated with soil microbial community variation along the altitude gradient, suggesting that they may act as important environmental filters. In conclusion, altitude-driven variations in litter characteristics and soil physicochemical properties jointly shape the assembly processes and spatial distribution patterns of soil microbial communities in this region.

Despite the essential role of soil microbial communities in driving nutrient cycling within alpine meadows, their distribution patterns along elevational gradients and their responses to environmental changes remain largely unexplored. To investigate this, soil samples were collected from five elevations (3300–4500 m) in the northeastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau to analyze bacterial community composition and diversity, as well as their associations with soil physicochemical properties and enzyme activities. The results showed significant variation in bacterial community composition and diversity across elevations. Actinomycetota, Pseudomonadota, and Acidobacteriota were the dominant phyla at all sampling sites. Community diversity, measured by the Shannon index, generally increased with elevation, peaking at 4500 m and lowest at 3300 m. Pearson correlation analysis and redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that soil bacterial community structure was significantly correlated with both soil nutrient factors and enzyme activities. Among these variables, total potassium, available phosphorus, catalase, and urease were strongly correlated with bacterial community differentiation. In addition, PERMANOVA results showed that elevation was the primary factor driving community variation, explaining a substantial proportion of the variation in community composition at a statistically significant level. Overall, this study highlights the distribution of bacterial communities in alpine meadow soils along an elevational gradient and their environmental associations, providing foundational data for understanding microbial community responses to environmental changes in alpine ecosystems.

The ecological stoichiometric traits of forest floor material nutrient resorption in forest ecosystems. However, systematic insights into nutrient allocation and scaling during the transformation of plant organs to forest floor material remain limited. This study examined six representative tree species on the southern slope of the Qilian Mountains, quantifying the carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) contents and their stoichiometric characteristics in leaves, branches, and mixed forest floor material. Allometric relationships between N and P were analyzed using the standardized major axis regression. Coniferous species exhibited a conservative strategy with high C/N and C/P ratios, whereas broad-leaved species and mixed forests exhibited nutrient-enrichment strategies. During the organ-to-forest floor material transformation, N and P contents significantly reduced, whereas C/N and C/P ratios increased, indicating strong nutrient resorption. N and P were positively associated with plant organs and forest floor material, with isometric relationships (b = 1.06 and 0.98 for plant organs and forest floor material, respectively). Because the slopes did not differ significantly from 1 (p > 0.05), the N:P ratio remained relatively constant, with no significant P limitation. This indicates that tree species regulate forest floor material quality through divergent nutrient utilization strategies, modulating nutrient cycling. This study provides a theoretical foundation for the ecological restoration and stand structure optimization of alpine forests.