Figure 3

The associations of clusters and the number of dominant taxa constituting multitrophic communities. Based on the co-occurrence patterns at seasonal and spatial scales, we integrated sympatric clusters constituting plankton, benthos, and nekton communities during a given time period. The spatial characterization of the clusters was achieved between the estuarine channel and the deep bay but less clearly within the deep bay, except for the plankton assemblage in February 2015. The resultant associations of clusters generated multitrophic communities with arrays of two or four contrasting types for the estuarine channel and the deep bay, respectively, classifying the seasonal typology of biocenoses in respective localities. The number of dominant taxa in different taxonomic groups is indicated for cluster associations. The dominant taxa, expressed in numbers in the figure, are listed in Supplementary Table 3.