Fig. 5

Comparison of soil PhytOC (carbon occluded in phytoliths) in different ecosystems. The numerical values within each box denote PhytOC content across distinct soil layers. The histogram illustrates the cumulative PhytOC content for soil up to a depth of 100 cm in the given ecosystem. Uppercase letters signify disparities among groups, while values adjacent to the arrows provide the correlation coefficients for neighboring soil layers, *, ** and *** denote significant at p < 0.05, p < 0.01 and p < 0.001 levels, respectively