Fig. 2

Bacterial distribution among sites in seabass and seabream. a Multidimensional scaling analysis (PCoA) based on Bray-Curtis distance according to the main two variables, fish species (shape pattern) and site (color pattern). R-squared values and significance after adonis permanova analysis tested on species and site variables are reported inside the panel. b, c PCoA based on Bray-Curtis distance performed after splitting the dataset according to the fish species, i.e. seabream (b) and seabass (c). PCoA reported sample distribution according to the different sites (color pattern) while R-squared values and significance from adonis permanova analysis are reported on top of the panels. d Heatmaps display statistical significance and R-squared values from pairwise adonis permanova for each comparison between groups, from lower value (blue scale) to higher value (red scale). Significant pairs are reported using asterisks (ns; not significative, *; P < 0.05, **; P < 0.01). e, f Boxplots reported the alpha diversity metrics among different sites in seabass (e) and seabream (f) datasets. Pairwise comparisons among alpha diversity measures were calculated by using the Wilcoxon test (Benjamini-Hochberg adjustment). Significant pairs are reported using asterisks (*; P < 0.05, **; P < 0.01, ***; P < 0.001, ****; P < 0.0001). The fishing sites are reported according to the following legend, CdP: Castiglione della Pescaia, Ce: Cecina, Li: Livorno