Table 2.

Alpha diversity indices of bacterial communities across the sampling sites.

Level	Indices	Ls	Rs	Lc	Rc	p-Value
Bacterial phylum
	Shannon_H	1.518	1.520	1.632	1.539	0.976
	Evenness_e ˆ H/S	0.207	0.208	0.233	0.212
Class
	Shannon_H	1.964	1.895	2.051	1.919	0.949
	Evenness_e ˆ H/S	0.274	0.256	0.299	0.262
Order
	Shannon_H	2.389	2.264	2.456	2.264	0.931
	Evenness_e ˆ H/S	0.363	0.321	0.389	0.321
Family
	Shannon_H	3.179	3.268	3.200	3.325	0.544
	Evenness_e ˆ H/S	0.687	0.751	0.701	0.794
Genus
	Shannon_H	3.109	3.155	3.064	3.188	0.860
	Evenness_e ˆ H/S	0.640	0.670	0.612	0.693

p-Value was based on Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance. Ls—Lichtenburg rhizosphere sample, Lc—Lichtenburg bulk (control) sample, Rs—Randfontein rhizosphere sample, Rc—Randfontein bulk (control) sample.