Discussion & References 

Discussion

          Ultimately, the bacterial diversity between our two soil communities was very similar. Based on our t-tests and p-values done for pH values, moisture content, microbial analysis, and genetic biodiversity analysis, there were no statistical differences between our soil samples of rain garden and non-rain garden. Due to this fact, we can conclude that placing rain gardens on our campus is not necessary and, in the end, does not help with controlling water quality and bettering our bacterial community. If soil contains different microbes, there can be a great impact on the quality of the soil which therefore improves plant health and the overall diversity within the area (Bell 2021). We are able to conclude then that if bacterial diversity were increased in the soil, it would greatly improve the environment. However, our soil samples and experiment show that rain garden specifically do not have large bacterial populations, and hence do not improve our environment and water quality.


References

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