Genetic Biodiversity

Fig 4 Legend: Comparison of soil microbial composition between two condition samples. The Shannon diversity index for the soil samples were very similar and when an unpaired t-test assuming unequal variance was performed, the p-value was 0.63 which is greater than 0.05 showing the two samples were not statistically different. The same process was then performed for richness and evenness, and all showed the same results. The p-values for each t-test were greater than 0.05 proving that the two soil samples are not statistically different in richness (p-value of 0.58), evenness (p-value of 0.30), or Shannon diversity (p-value of 0.63). The QIIME 2.0 test showed the bacteria composition within the two soil samples. It showed that the samples contained a relatively same composition of bacteria and there wasn’t one type that stood out or was very different between the two conditions. 

Method: The 16s gene was isolated from the two different soil samples and run through PCR. This data was then run through multiple data analysis software for further analysis of results.

Evidence: The values for condition 1 (library) compared to condition 2 (fruit tree) are very similar to one another. The average value for the Shannon diversity index only varied by 0.029, as the value of the library was 4.517 and the value for the fruit trees 4.546. The average value of the richness varied by 0.004, the value for the library was 0.925 and the value for the fruit trees was 0.921. The average values of the evenness varied by 7, with the library value being 132.25 and the fruit tree value being 139.25. As shown by the fact that all three p-values were greater than 0.05, none of the values showed a significant difference between the two conditions. To further confirm the similarities, the relative phyla also showed no significant differences between the two soil samples. 

Conclusion: It can be concluded that the two conditions do not have a unique soil microbiome genetic diversity. This is determined in high confidence by the results of the unpaired t-test assuming unequal variance, as all the p-values were greater than 0.05. 

Explanation: The biodiversity of the two soil samples are likely the same because the samples were collected from the same location. Due to the proximity of the two collections, there are no substantial differences between the phyla. We can determine from analyzing our data that the two samples contain the phyla most dominant in soil composition (PH). This further proves the statement that there is no significant difference between the library soil and the fruit tree soil. It also shows that if soil compositions are similar in different regions that phyla in the soil collected from the same will be similar.