Figure 2.

Distance–decay relationships (DDRs) for active (RNA) and total (DNA) bacterial communities sampled from forested ponds. Using the Canberra metric of similarity, which emphasizes rare taxa, we found that environmental DDRs (a,b) were 58.5% steeper for the active community than for the total community (p = 0.001). Geographical DDRs (c,d) were 54.5% steeper for the active community than for the total community (p = 0.001). Warmer colours represent a greater density of data points. Analyses based on Bray–Curtis distance and Sørensen's distance produced qualitatively similar results (see electronic supplementary material). The red line is the DDR resulting from a null model whereby communities were randomly assigned to different locations.