A new method called co-correspondence analysis was created to compare two different types of communities, like plants and animals, sampled at the same places. This method looks for patterns that are common to both communities by analyzing the species in each. It is better than the old way of just comparing separate species data sets. The researchers found that carabid beetles in roadside areas are more similar to the plant species there than to the vegetation structure. In another example, bryophytes in spring meadows are more related to the types of vascular plants than to the water chemistry.