Fig. 4

The correlation between modified stochasticity ratio (MST) and (a) dilution level, (b) species richness or (c) Shannon index for each experiment in the meta-analysis. The Pearson’s correlation is first calculated and transformed into effect size using Fisher’s z transformation. Dilution level equals to the logarithmically transformed dilution factor based on 10. Species richness is logarithmically transformed based on 10 before the calculation of Pearson’s correlation. The points (with 95% confidence intervals) represent effect sizes in different experiments and are given in increasing order. Red color represents the effect sizes significantly larger than 0, blue color represents the effect sizes significantly smaller than 0 and grey color represents effect sizes having no significant difference with 0. z₊₊ is the estimate of mean effect size using meta regression and *** represents P < 0.001 using meta-analysis model