Fig 1.
Rank order of the main Super-Groups (A) and metazoan phyla (B) according to total number MOTUs in the samples.
The red line indicates the mean proportion of reads of the taxa in the samples.
Fig 2.
Average similarities between pairs of samples in different categories of comparisons.
Both the Jaccard index (presence-absence data) and the Bray-Curtis index (relative abundance data) results are presented. Error bars are standard errors.
Fig 3.
Distributional span of the MOTUs.
The graph represents the frequency histograms of the number of MOTUs present in 1 to 20 samples or in 1 to 5 zones (right axis).
Fig 4.
Values rarefied to the number of reads of the smallest sample in each grouping are given for the different zones (A), layers (B), and depths (C) considered. Values are sample means and error bars are standard errors.
Fig 5.
Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling plots of the samples obtained using Jaccard dissimilarity index (A), and Bray-Curtis dissimilarity index (B) for the whole dataset.
The centroids for the different zones, and the corresponding inertia ellipses, are indicated. Numbers inside the plots are the stress values of the retained configurations.
Table 1.
PERMANOVA analysis (9,999 permutations) comparing the five zones surveyed using Jaccard index.
PERMDISP probabilities for homogeneity of dispersion are also shown. Pairwise tests for levels of the factor Zone are presented with uncorrected P-values. Significant values after FDR correction are indicated with an asterisk. The symbol § denotes comparisons for which PERMDISP detected a significant heterogeneity of dispersion.
Table 2.
PERMANOVA analysis (9,999 permutations) comparing the factors Layer (fixed) and Depth (fixed) for the samples of the DOSMARES project using Jaccard index.
PERMDISP probabilities for homogeneity of dispersion are also shown. Pairwise tests for levels of the significant factors are presented with uncorrected P-values. Significant values after FDR correction are indicated with an asterisk. The symbol § denotes comparisons for which PERMDISP detected a significant heterogeneity of dispersion (in comparisons of layers only, as the overall test was not significant for depth).
Fig 6.
Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling plots of the sediment samples separated by layers (layer A, first cm of sediment in the corer; layer B, second cm; layer C, cm 3–5).
Ordinations are obtained using Jaccard dissimilarity index (A), and Bray-Curtis dissimilarity index (B). The centroids of layer A and layers B+C, and the corresponding inertia ellipses, are indicated. (C) nmMDS plot obtained for layer A alone with the Jaccard index. (D) nmMDS plot obtained for layers B+C with the Jaccard index. Samples in these plots are presented with color-coded depth categories and the fitted gradient vector of depth is added. Numbers inside the plots are the stress values of the retained configurations.
Fig 7.
Distributional span of the MOTUs of the benthic taxa and the main metazoan phyla analysed.
The graphs represent the frequency histograms of the number of MOTUs present in 1 to 20 samples (left axis), or in 1 to 5 zones (right axis).
Fig 8.
Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling plots of the samples obtained using Jaccard dissimilarity index for the benthic taxa and the main metazoan phyla.
The centroids for the different zones, and the corresponding inertia ellipses, are indicated. Numbers inside the plots are the stress values of the retained configuration.