Figure 4

Community stability around exacerbation. Points represent the Bray-Curtis similarity (1 − Bray-Curtis dissimilarity) between the relative abundances of all OTUs at any given time point and the next time point, and range from 0 (no stability) to 1 (perfect stability). (See Methods for details.) The gray-shaded regions represent the ‘stability zone,’ which is the expected range of similarity for each subject. Periods of clinical stability (white horizontal bars) and onset of exacerbation symptoms (black horizontal bars) are indicated. Dashed vertical lines indicate transition between baseline and exacerbation. Each plot ends on the day preceding the prescription of antibiotics for treatment of exacerbation.