Fig. 3

The Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) ordination plots summarising the distribution of algal taxa across the most critical environmental variables for algal colonisation, (a) relations between individual taxa and factors, (b) diversity plot with the number of species at sampling sites; vectors of variables are: (Temp) substrate temperature, (Mois) substrate moisture, (Illum) percentage of illumination, and species: (Br_min) Bracteacoccus minor, (Ch_sach) Chloroidium saccharophilum, (De_epi) Deuterostichococcus epilithicus, (Di_cho) Diplosphaera chodatii, (Kl_nit) Klebsormidium nitens, (Ps_mon) Pseudostichococcus monallantoides, (St_bac) Stichococcus bacillaris; the analysis explained 90.73% of the total variation among the variables, and an Interactive Forward Selection Test selected the above variables with the contribution of: Temp – 48.7%, Mois – 23.1%, and Illum – 15.3%.