Two dynamic regimes in the human gut microbiome
Fig 6
OTUs in the time series data show a propensity for mean-reversion.
The top row of plots shows the change in relative abundance from time t to time t+1 (y-axis) vs. the relative abundance (x-axis) for OTU 850870 (Greengenes ID; Bacteroides spp.; the most abundant OTU in M3, F4 and DB time series and 2nd most abundant OTU in DA time series). The bottom plot summarized the ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression coefficient (R) for the top 50 most abundant OTUs from each data set. In general, there is a negative association between an OTU’s change in abundance and its current abundance level, suggesting that OTUs have fixed carrying capacities. The average magnitude of the regression coefficient appears to be an indicator of the returning force. These results are consistent with stationarity.