Table 2.

Summary description of the sampling sites, the number of sequences collected, and the level of bacterial diversity identified.

	TH	SC	NH	NC
Total no. of sequence reads	11,381,154
Average length of sequence reads before merging bp (range)	301 (301–301)
Average length of sequence reads after merging bp (range)	336.92 (61–490)
No. of sampling sites	116	35	28	24
Total no. of classifiable sequences	7,208,513	1,582,210	739,076	898,228
Total no. of OTUs in all samples	8,504	5,959	2,194	3,399
Average no. of sequences per sample (range)	62,142 (2,056–439,086)	45,206 (1,789–122,052)	26,395 (2,710–183,090)	37,426 (1,574–133,633)
Average no. of OTUs per sample (range)	796 (238–2,617)	933 (326–1,807)	543 (147–1,421)	339 (139–1,077)

Phylotypes were determined at the 97% sequence similarity level.