The diversity and specificity of microbial communities in marine environments is a key aspect of the ecology and evolution of both the eukaryotic hosts and their associated prokaryotes. Marine sponges
OTUs were determined at 90% similarity. For Row A OTUs were considered shared between all sponges if present in 6 of the 7 sponges. For Rows B and C OTUs were considered shared if present in all 3 of
A key concept in theoretical ecology is the positive correlation between biodiversity and ecosystem stability. To test the relationship between diversity and community stability in host-associated mic