Table 2.

Alpha diversity estimators of the bacterial community in the mud samples¹.

Station	Sample	Coverage	OTUs	Bacterial richness index		Bacterial diversity index
		(%)		Ace	Chao	Shannon	Simpsonx 10 −3
Clam naturally growing area	F	97.74	2,055 ± 50a	2,509 ± 37a	2,469 ± 42a	6.28 ± 0.005a	5.72 ± 0.32a
Clam aquaculture area	H	97.95	1,493 ± 31c	2,087 ± 73b	2,005 ± 61b	5.47 ± 0.25b	19.15 ± 0.30b
Non-clam area	D	97.97	1,545 ± 41c	2,018 ± 74b	1,991 ± 104b	5.73 ± 0.01c	8.68 ± 0.36b

¹Statistical analysis was made by t-test. Different lower cases in the same column represent significance at a p-value of < 0.05 (ab) and at a p-value of < 0.01 (ac) between the clam naturally growing area and the other studied stations.