Changes in microbial abundance.

<p>Comparisons of changes in the microbial abundance on the naturally incubated magpie eggs between rural (n = 14 nests) and urban (n = 17 nests) populations; (a) total bacteria, (b) <i>Escherichia coli/Shigella</i> spp., (c) surfactin-producing <i>Bacillus</i> spp., and (d) <i>Candida albicans</i>. Paired responses of each nest (connected circles) are given along with the average aligned ranks (circles with error bars). Open circles (connected with solid lines) and closed circles (connected with dashed lines) denote the responses of the rural and urban populations respectively. Units of Y axis values for the microbial abundance are log₁₀ (copy numbers of microbes) per cm² of the eggshells for (a), (b) and (c), and log₁₀ (copy numbers+1) per cm² of the eggshells for (d). Error bars for the aligned ranks denote standard errors. Significance level of the comparison of aligned ranks is given as “*” for 0.01