Each journal gives specific instructions on how these are to appear.

General Concept

The reader should be able to understand the
Table or Figure
without referring to the rest of the article.

This is a Tall Order!!!!!

In your case, you will have lots of Figures.
Figures are Photographs and Graphs

Each Figure has a "Legend".

This includes a
title-like opening.
You must include important Materials and Methods for that particular Figure!

You need to explain what different lines and symbols represent. These could be different treatments or species, as well as sample variations or statistical significance.

If this is a Graph, The X & Y Axes must be
clearly labeled

Each Table must have an Informative Title

Table Titles are like the Title for your paper. However, they are specific to the Table at hand.

They should include the key details that the reader need to understand the Table!

The Rows and Columns must be clearly labeled.

Footnotes can be used for abbreviations of terms and statistical significance.

Literature Citations

Cite the authors of books and papers that you consulted.
Do NOT pad your citations!!!!!

These are given in alphabetical order.

Each journal has a style sheet which tells you the preferred format.

In most cases you can solve problems by looking at articles in recent articles (similar to yours) for the journal in question.

This also applies to Tables & Figures!!!

Otherwise, there are style manuals which are encyclopedic in scope. I will provide a reference for you later.

The Council for Biology Editors Style Manual covers virtually all types of scientific writing.

Council of Biology Editors
Scientific Style and Format, 6th ed.
Cambridge, UK
1994