and functional diversity; (ii) the

and functional diversity; (ii) the experimental period of 13 years was not long enough to show the
significant differences in the microbial characteristics although some tendencies were observed, e.g.,
triple-fertilizer treatments tended to have higher Shannon diversity and evenness than other treatments;
(iii) the soil microbial characteristics will be subject to the large spatial and temporal variations, and
perhaps more replications and sample frequency will be required to deal with the spatial and temporal
variability.