Fig. 4

Namib Desert speargrasses rhizosheath-root systems recruitment process. a Bipartite network analysis of microbial communities (bacteria and fungi) associated with speargrass rhizosheath-root system and bulk sand. Edges connecting sample nodes to SV’ nodes were coloured according to their environmental source (black shade, root tissues; red shades, rhizosheath; blue shades, rhizosphere; yellow, sand soil). b, c Ternary plot revealing relative abundance (dot size) and generalist or plant species-specific behaviours of bacterial and fungal SVs among speargrasses. d, e Venn diagram detecting bacterial and fungal specialist (speargrass-specific) and generalist SVs (shared among speargrasses)