Bayesian Microbiome Diversity Analysis

Bayesian microbiome diversity analysis applies probabilistic models — chiefly Dirichlet-Multinomial and related hierarchical frameworks — to 16S rRNA or shotgun metagenomic count data to estimate alpha-diversity (within-sample richness and evenness) and beta-diversity (between-sample compositional differences) while propagating uncertainty through the entire inference chain. Unlike frequentist rarefaction-based approaches, Bayesian methods treat taxon counts as draws from a latent composition, enabling credible intervals on diversity metrics and principled comparison across groups with unequal sequencing depth.