Differences in bacterial assemblages between the nest components.

<p>Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling along A) the first and second axis, B) the second and third axis and C) the first and third axis, displaying differences in bacterial assemblages between the four nest components including preincubation eggs (closed circles and dash dot line), incubated eggs (open circles and long dashed line), nestling faeces (closed triangles and dotted line) and nesting material (open diamonds and a solid line).</p

Mean Bray-Curtis similarities between nest components.

<p>Data are presented as means ± standard error. “Preincubation” and “Incubated” indicate eggs sampled before and during the incubation period, respectively.</p><p>Mean Bray-Curtis similarities between nest components.</p

Prevalence of cultured bacteria in different nest components.

<p>Prevalence of cultured bacteria between nest components, including <i>Enterococcus</i> spp. (dark grey), coliforms (white), <i>Staphylococcus/Streptococcus</i> spp. (black) and <i>Escherichia coli/Staphylococcus saprophyticus</i> (light grey).</p

Differences in bacterial diversity and abundance between nest components.

<p>Differences between the four nest components in 1) diversity of OTUs per sample using ARISA and 2) abundance of bacteria per sample quantified using culturing techniques. Data are presented as predicted means ± standard error. Cultured bacteria abundance means were calculated using log₁₀ transformed data. Proportions of haemolytic bacteria are stated as percentage. “Preincubation” and “Incubated” indicate eggs sampled before and during the incubation period, respectively. Generalised linear mixed models were used due to the non-independence of samples collected from the same nest.</p><p>Differences in bacterial diversity and abundance between nest components.</p

Abundance of cultured bacteria in preincubation and incubated eggs.

<p>Abundance of cultured bacteria sampled from eggs before and during incubation, including haemolytic bacteria (Ha), non-haemolytic bacteria (nHa), <i>Enterococcus</i> (En), Coliforms (Co), <i>Streptococcus</i>/<i>Staphylococcus</i> (SS) and <i>Escherichia coli/Staphylococcus saprophyticus</i> (Es/Ss). Bars represent predicted means ± SE from GLMMs, including sampling date as a covariate.</p