Table 4 Occurrence (count) of the ten most prominent soil properties and terrain attributes in all models, tree layer models and herb layer models.

From: The strength of soil-plant interactions under forest is related to a Critical Soil Depth

Soil property/terrain attribute

Total occurrence

Occurrence in tree layer models

Occurrence in herb layer

C:N

30 (1)

2 (10)

28 (1)

Coarse-sized sand

27 (2)

18 (2)

9 (7)

pH (H2O)

25 (3)

20 (1)

5 (11)

Bulk density

21 (4)

9 (3)

12 (4)

Elevation

19 (5)

5 (5)

14 (2)

Carbon stocks

15 (6)

4 (8)

11 (5)

Cation exchange capacity (effective)

14 (7)

14 (2)

Clay

13 (8)

5 (5)

8 (8)

Fine-sized sand

11 (9)

1 (11)

10 (6)

Slope

11 (10)

4 (8)

7 (10)

Ion equivalent Iron

10 (11)

7 (4)

3 (12)

Very fine-sized sand

9 (12)

1 (11)

8 (8)

Ion equivalent Potassium

8 (13)

5 (5)

3 (12)

  1. Models were used to relate soil properties and terrain attributes to biomass, Shannon diversity, Evenness, Species richness, Phylogenetic diversity and tree age. The rank is displayed in brackets.