“…The increase in bacterial alpha diversity following conversion to agriculture differs sharply with commonly reported decreases in the diversity of plants (Ibrahim et al, 2003), animals (Bierregaard, 2001; Brook, Sodhl, & Ng, 2003; Gardner et al, 2009) and fungi (Cai, Zhang, Yang, & Wang, 2018; Kerfahi, Tripathi, Dong, Go, & Adams, 2016; Lan et al, 2017; McGuire et al, 2015; Mueller et al, 2014). This difference may result from ecological differences between bacteria and eukaryotes; for example, bacterial diversity may respond to changes in soil chemical properties, rather than being directly affected by land use change.…”