Fig. 3

Taxonomic and phylogenetic diversities of biofilms across different pore spaces. Shannon diversity of biofilm communities at varying pore sizes (a). Negative and positive correlations between community richness (b) and evenness (c) with biofilm coverage. Decreased abundance-weighted mean nearest taxon distance (weighted SES.MNTD) associated with higher biofilm coverage (d). r represents the Spearman correlation coefficient, and the shaded area indicates the 95% confidence interval. Different letters indicate significant differences (p < 0.05, one-way ANOVA, n = 7 independent biological replicates per pore size). Relative abundance of whole biofilm communities and subcommunities (abundant, intermediate, and rare) at the genus level (e)