Statistical Analysis
The normal distribution and homoscedasticity were assessed using the
Shapiro-Wilk Test and Levene’s Test, respectively. To compare the
vegetation characteristics (Total cover, bare soil, litter and stone
cover), vegetation condition scores (BS, LF, WPC, Prod and RCS) and
species diversity indices (species richness, species evenness, Shannon
and Simpson diversity indices), independent Student’s t-Test was used.
To assess the significant difference between pre and post mulching and
between the control and the mulch treatments, we used a two-way ANOVA.
In this model, year (pre vs. post mulching; 2017 and 2019), treatment
(control vs. mulch) and their interaction were introduced as independent
variables, and vegetation cover extracted by MSAVI was introduced as the
dependent variable to the model. In addition, a t-student test was
conducted to detect significant differences between pre and post
mulching and between control and mulch treatments. All statistical tests
were performed using the SPSS var. 21.0 software.