Fig 1.
Geographic distribution of sampled coral reefs in the Western Caribbean (Colombia).
Each color represents a different reef type: four atolls, one barrier reef, four reef banks and one fringe reef (map contours were tablet-digitized from the nautical charts COL 005 and 261, CIOH, República de Colombia).
Fig 2.
Sorensen beta diversity between habitat type (a) and reef type (b) for Caribbean octocoral communities.
Circles represent groups that can be explained by distribution patterns. P–value of Pearson’s correlation with Mantel test of phylogenetic community dissimilarity and environmental condition, between habitat type (c) and reef type (d). *Significant correlation.
Fig 3.
Discriminant component analysis, for the most abundant Caribbean octocoral species in every sample, to determine morphologic similarities according to the habitat type and reef type.
For the SM_5 m habitat neither species was more abundant with regard to the rest of the habitats. SESmetric for the four continuous and one binary traits (the analysis does not allow to run multistate traits) according to habitat type (c) and reef type (d). * = Greater absolute correlation between each variable and any discriminant function; s = Data significantly different from 0 with two-tailed t-test and 95% confidence interval.
Fig 4.
Results from the nearest-taxon (NTI) and net-relatedness (NRI) indexes.
NTI for habitat type (a) and reef type (b) for Caribbean shallow-water octocoral communities. * Values significantly different from 0 under a two-tailed t-test and interval 95% confidence interval.