Fig. 2

Analysis of changes in cecal microbial diversity and composition under cold stress in Hu and Hulunbuir sheep. A, B Alpha diversity was measured by Shannon and Chao1 indices using the Wilcoxon test. C the PCoA plot based on the Bray–Curtis distance and Adonis method. D The top 10 microbiota at the phylum level for each group. Significant changes in the cecal microbiota of Hu (E) and Hulunbuir sheep (F) were identified using LEfSe (LDA > 2, P < 0.05). G Screening of differential KEGG pathways based on the LEfSe approach (LDA > 2, P < 0.05)