Microbiome & multi-omics / Rarefaction curve
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Each curve is one sample: the x-axis is the number of reads drawn and the y-axis the expected number of taxa observed at that depth. A curve that levels off means more sequencing would reveal few new taxa.
Curves are computed exactly from the hypergeometric formula, with no random subsampling, so results are identical every time. The dashed line marks the smallest sample, a common choice of rarefaction depth: if most curves are already flat there, little is lost by rarefying.
With a sample sheet the curves are coloured by group; tick “Show ±1 SE band” to see the uncertainty of the expectation at each depth (busy with many samples).
Hurlbert S. H. (1971) Ecology 52:577–586; Heck K. L. et al. (1975) Ecology 56:1459–1461. Same formulae as R vegan rarefy (se = TRUE).
Up to 20,000 taxa; standard errors are slower with many taxa.
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