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.