Fig. 2

Compositional similarity of coral reef microbiomes over time. a Variations in the compositional similarity between and within sampling time points of various coral reef microbiomes collected at Geoffrey Bay (Magnetic Island). A higher similarity within time point replicates than between time point replicates suggests a uniform response of the microbial community to temporal variations. Similarities were calculated with Bray-Curtis Similarity Index (0 = no similarity, 1 = high similarity) and significances tested with Wilcoxon rank-sum test. b The within sampling time point similarities of replicates (n = 3) is indicated in colour and the dispersion (coefficient of variation—ratio of the standard deviation to the mean expressed as percentage) is displayed as size. Analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) was further used as a proxy for the within and between time point variation. R values of 1 indicate high similarity within sampling time points and high variability between sampling time points, whereas 0 indicates equal similarity within and between sampling time points