Fig. 5

Co-abundance networks of rumen bacterial taxa at weaning (T1), backgrounding (T2–T3), and finishing (T4–T5). a Network topology and attributes in the rumen microbiome of calves at weaning, BKG and finishing can be visualized. Nodes represent a given ASV and edges show the association (correlation) between two given bacterial taxa (nodes). Color key represents neighbor connectivity, which measures the average connectivity of all surrounding nodes in the network. Size of node represents the average degree of connectivity or number associations a given node has in the network. Shape represents the average shortest path length, a measure of how fast information can travel through a network. Differences in the variation of all these network attributes between each group at BKG and finishing can be observed in the box plots depicted in panel (b), where letters represent significant differences based on Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests (P < 0.05). Dry lot (DL); cover crop (CC) and perennial pasture (PP)