Fig. 6.

Inferring interaction types in a synthetic community of maize roots with seven bacterial species. The data set consists of seven sextets and one septet. a Without considering the one septet, we analyze the seven sextets (steady-state samples involving six of the seven species). We use the brute-force method to infer the ecological interaction types, i.e., the sign-pattern of the Jacobian matrix. Blue (or red) means inhibition (or promotion) effect of species j on species i, respectively. One sign (gray) is undetermined from the seven sextets. b The changes of species abundance before and after, respectively, adding one species into a sextet. Blue (or red) corresponds to the decrease (or increase) of one species’ abundance after introducing a new species into sextets, respectively. Each column corresponds to a sextet (a six-baterial community), the name of the newly introduced species is marked in the top of each column. ‘×’ indicates the false prediction. There are in total 12 false predictions