How to create Beta Diversity distance boxplot

Question

I'm trying to generate boxplot from Beta diversity boxplot between two conditions from a phyloseq object.

I have a Morisita-horn distance generated by vegdist fonction :

vegdist<-vegdist(t(otu_table(physeq_genus_3a)), method="horn")#matrice distance Morisita-horn
vegdist<-as.matrix(vegdist)

Now I have a matrix and I would like to somewhat create a mean distance boxplot of the Morisita-horn index winthin two condition like the graph below.

I wanted to do a simple boxplot with ggplot but beacause it is a matrix and not a dataframe, I can't do it.

Any help or suggestions would be more than welcome.

Answer 1

1. You can use as.data.frame() or as_tibble() to convert/coerce your matrix to a data frame or a tibble respectively (Technically a tibble is also a data frame). From there you should be fine with ggplot().

2. I would not use a "dynamite plot" (this is a box plot with error bars like the one in your question), that type of plots conceal the data! This post explains why and remedies.