Fig. 4: Changes in alpha diversity metrics of bacteria richness and evenness in biofilms through time in response to benthic organism and nutrient treatments.
a Richness and evenness significantly increased over 6 weeks (ptime < 0.001) independent of the benthic organism with which they were cultured (porg < 0.001). Black asterisks indicate time points with significant organismal effect (porg ≤ 0.001). Color coded asterisks indicate an increase in richness or evenness between 2 and 6 weeks (ptime ≤ 0.001; green = algae, pink = coral, yellow = sand). b Within each organismal treatment, nutrients differentially impact biofilms at 6 weeks and had opposing effects on richness and evenness in coral treatments.
