Fig. 8

Hive plot assessing characteristics of microbial networks associated with apparently healthy and diseased corals. Displayed are three axes. Points on axes A and B represent all dominant microbes (> 0.125% mean relative abundance across all samples) present in pathobiomes of diseased corals (A) and in the microbiome of apparently healthy corals (B). Both axes are further separated into two sub-axes, one illustrates those microbes with higher densities in apparently healthy tissues (yellow points) and the other illustrates microbes with higher densities in diseased tissues (red points). Size and relative distance from the origin of sub-axis reflect the relative abundance of microbes across all samples. Connections between axes A and B indicate a connection between microbes in both networks of Fig. 7 (green; consistent connection) or in only one of the two networks (grey, i.e. representing an inconsistent connection). Our analysis reveals that consistent connections are mostly found between microbes showing higher relative abundances in apparently healthy corals and that consistency in interactions are rare between microbes benefiting from the diseased state. Axis C illustrates the local clustering coefficient (see the ‘Methods’ section for computation) of microbes in networks of apparently healthy and infected corals. Each microbe on axes A and B is associated with a certain clustering coefficient via a connection to axis C. The distance from the origin of axis C thereby indicates the strength of clustering. Here, microbes, which have higher densities in infected corals, are strongly clustered in the networks of apparently healthy tissues. In the diseased tissue, both ‘groups’ of microbes include a mix of members which are strongly and rather loosely clustered