Table 2. Average normalized richness (7,000 sequences per sequence library) and diversity indices for each of the four soil intervals (n = 6 (±1 standard error)).
| Soil Fraction | Chao1 | Ace | Shannon | Inverse Simpson * | Simpson Evenness | OTUs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CT | 4340 (582) | 8848 (1321) | 4.43 (0.28) | 12.8 (4.5) | 0.016 (0.002) | 1125 (134) |
| CB | 3969 (355) | 8008 (684) | 4.43 (0.35) | 13.2 (5.8) | 0.023 (0.004) | 1041 (116) |
| ST | 5408 (835) | 11896 (2192) | 4.74 0.52) | 9.9 (7.3) | 0.025 (0.004) | 1341 (160) |
| SB | 4050 (498) | 9535 (561) | 4.96 (0.20) | 29.1 (6.8) | 0.032 (0.005) | 1250 (51) |
OTU’s were defined at a maximum distance of 0.03.
“*” denotes statistically significant effect of vegetation type (F = 6.50, d.f. = 1,22, P-value = 0.029).
None of the richness or diversity indices were significantly affected by soil depth or the interaction between vegetation type and soil depth (all P-values > 0.05). CT = cheatgrass surface soil (0–4 cm), CB = cheatgrass subsurface soil (4–8 cm), ST = sagebrush surface soil (0–4 cm), SB = sagebrush subsurface soil (4–8 cm).