3.2 | Microbial diversity and richness in the soil
samples
Alpha diversity reflects the richness and diversity of the bacterial
community indices. The Chao index is used to estimate the species
richness, and the ACE index is used to indicate the number of OTUs in
the soil community. Therefore, the higher the value of these indices,
the higher the richness. The Shannon and Simpson’s indices are used to
characterize species diversity within a community. A high Shannon index
indicates high microbial diversity. The results from the diversity
(Shannon), richness (Chao), ACE, and Simpson’s indices for the bacterial
communities are shown in Figure 2. The species richness and number of
OTUs in the soil bacterial community in GLF were significantly higher
than those in the LF (Figure 2). There were no significant differences
in the determined characteristics between the soil layer depth and slope
positions. These results indicated that forest type has a more
pronounced effect on the soil bacterial community than the depth and the
slope position.