3.3. | Phylogeny-Weighted β-Diversity
Phylogeny weighted β-diversity (weighted UniFrac distance) was significantly correlated with Julian date (R2 = 0.02, p = 0.01), longitude (R2 = 0.03 ,p = 0.01), sandwort presence (R2 = 0.03,p < 0.01), and beach pea availability (R2 = 0.02, p = 0.02; Table S4, Supporting information). A positive correlation was again observed between the longitudinal distance separating horses and weighted UniFrac distance (Mantel test: rpearson = 0.33, p < 0.01). Similarly, in a univariate PERMANOVA, band membership was found to be significantly correlated with weighted UniFrac distance (R2 = 0.69, p < 0.01). Log-transformed weighted UniFrac β-dispersion was greater among horses with access to sandwort (p < 0.01) but negatively correlated with beach pea abundance (p = 0.01, Table S5, Supporting information). Of note, β-dispersion in weighted UniFrac space trended towards being higher among mares with foals than those without, although this effect was marginally non-significant (p = 0.06).