# Microbial loadings on each axis of PCoA plots.

**URL:** https://forum.qiime2.org/t/microbial-loadings-on-each-axis-of-pcoa-plots/26112
**Category:** General Discussion
**Tags:** biplot
**Created:** [April 14, 2023, 5:06am UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/microbial-loadings-on-each-axis-of-pcoa-plots/26112 "2023-04-14T05:06:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
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### Author: ![crusher083](https://forum.qiime2.org/user_avatar/forum.qiime2.org/crusher083/32/9597_2.png) [@crusher083](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/crusher083)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2023, 7:30am UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/microbial-loadings-on-each-axis-of-pcoa-plots/26112/2 "2023-04-14T07:30:20Z")

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Hello!  
Good questions.

1. QIIME 2 can operate either on ASV or tables collapsed to taxa. Unless you specifically collapsed a table to a taxonomical level before biplot creation, in the process of creating a biplot with taxa names you should have received a biplot with individual feature hashes initially. Taxa are just labels added for the readability of the plot (instead of raw sequence).
2. It is not possible to get loading scores for any type of PCoA, because it is not a linear dimensionality transformation technique. It is computed based on a distance matrix, and distance functions preserve no information about the features that make up the distances.  
Here's a detailed explanation:  
[Using PCoA versus PCA - #3 by jwdebelius](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/using-pcoa-versus-pca/26019/3)

Cheers  
Valentyn

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