2.2. Sampling
In September 2013, stands from three different land uses (the
native evergreen broad-leaved forest, the mixed forest and the
bamboo forest) were randomly selected for this study. Each type
of land use was replicated at five stands, for a total of 15 stands.
Selected stands were well-drained, flat slope (slope less than 5%)
and mesic.
In each stand, a 20 20 m2 plot was established to assess the
composition of soil microbial communities, together with soil
physicochemical properties and overstory vegetation. First, for
overstory vegetation, all trees >2 cm in diameter at breast height
(DBH, 1.3 m above root collar) were identified up to species, and
their height and DBH were recorded. This plot-level data are then
represented as richness (S), defined as the number of species present
in each sampling plot (Magurran, 2013), and evenness (J),
defined as the relative dominance of individual species within a
sampling plot, and quantified as: