Fig. 1
From: Social organization and physical environment shape the microbiome of harvester ants
Visualization of hypotheses. (a) The physical environment determines microbial community structure. We expect the contents within the nest chambers (ants, reproductives, brood, and seeds) to have similar microbiome composition to the surrounding soil and that nests will differ from one another in their microbiome - based on differences in the surrounding soil. (b) Social organization determines microbial composition. We expect the microbiome composition of contents within the nests chambers to differ across chambers regardless of the microbial composition of the surrounding soil. The colors of the circles represent different microbiome compositions of the nest chambers. The background colors represent the microbiome composition of the surrounding soil