Figure 3. Alpha diversity indexes for microbial taxa richness are shown as boxplots (with median, interquartile range (IQR) and whiskers extending to the last data points). Individual values appear as light blue dots for the female mink and dark blue triangle for the males, for each mink populations. Shannon index (A) expresses changes in taxa richness and abundance, Chao1 (B) variation in strict richness, and Faith’s PD (C) for phylogenetic diversity. Results from respective Kruskal-Wallis tests are documented.