Table 1.

Comparison of α-diversity indices in TPP and VEE soil samples.

Sample ID	TPP10	TPP13	TPP16	VEE13	VEE16	Rate
Reads	43,510 ± 180.31a	34,390 ± 714.18c	39,150 ± 2004.65abc	37,060 ± 1309.56bc	41,640 ± 3867.87ab	–
OTUs	145 ± 11.59d	273 ± 7.00b	198 ± 26.58c	274 ± 5.03b	318 ± 16.26a	56.94
Chao	150 ± 11.37d	291 ± 10.79b	242 ± 27.84c	290 ± 0.00b	338 ± 11.14a	33.81
Coverage	0.9998 ± 0.0001a	0.9990 ± 0.0005bc	0.9986 ± 0.0001c	0.9992 ± 0.0002b	0.9990 ± 0.0001bc	32.50
Shannon	2.04 ± 0.1626a	2.92 ± 0.0141a	2.14 ± 0.0354a	3.23 ± 0.1202a	2.53 ± 0.0707a	21.86
Simpson	0.39 ± 0.4842a	0.13 ± 0.0057a	0.23 ± 0.0113a	0.10 ± 0.0078a	0.21 ± 0.0095a	− 11.67

“Rate” refers to the growth rate of VEE16 over TPP16.

Means followed by the same letter a, b or c indicates there is no significant difference among the treatments at p < 0.05 (n = 3), Number after “+/−” represents the standard deviation. TPP means a traditional planting pattern while VEE means a vegetable–eel–earthworm integrated planting and breeding platform.