DOI: 10.5061/dryad.m2r17
title: Data from: Spatial and successional dynamics of microbial biofilm communities in a grassland stream ecosystem

description: Biofilms represent a metabolically active and structurally complex
 component of freshwater ecosystems. Ephemeral prairie streams are
 hydrologically harsh and prone to frequent perturbation. Elucidating both
 functional and structural community changes over time within prairie
 streams provides a general understanding of microbial responses to
 environmental disturbance. We examined microbial succession of biofilm
 communities at three sites in a third-order stream at Konza Prairie over a
 2- to 64-day period. Microbial abundance (bacterial abundance, chlorophyll
 a concentrations) increased and never plateaued during the experiment. Net
 primary productivity (net balance of oxygen consumption and production) of
 the developing biofilms did not differ statistically from zero until 64
 days suggesting a balance of the use of autochthonous and allochthonous
 energy sources until late succession. Bacterial communities (MiSeq
 analyses of the V4 region of 16S rRNA) established quickly. Bacterial
 richness, diversity and evenness were high after 2 days and increased over
 time. Several dominant bacterial phyla (Beta-, Alphaproteobacteria,
 Bacteroidetes, Gemmatimonadetes, Acidobacteria, Chloroflexi) and genera
 (Luteolibacter, Flavobacterium, Gemmatimonas, Hydrogenophaga) differed in
 relative abundance over space and time. Bacterial community composition
 differed across both space and successional time. Pairwise comparisons of
 phylogenetic turnover in bacterial community composition indicated that
 early-stage succession (≤16 days) was driven by stochastic processes,
 whereas later stages were driven by deterministic selection regardless of
 site. Our data suggest that microbial biofilms predictably develop both
 functionally and structurally indicating distinct successional
 trajectories of bacterial communities in this ecosystem.
description: Algal biomass, bacterial
 abundance, and bacterial diversity estimatesThese data include mean
 chlorophyll a (ug/cm2; header - Chlor) and bacterial cell abundance
 (cells/cm2; header - Bacteria) within each site (1-3) and each time point.
 Bacterial 16S rRNA (archaea and chloroplasts were removed) data are also
 included - goods coverage (header - Goods_coverage), OTU richness (header
 - Sobs_16S), the complement of Simpsons Diversity (header -
 Simpsons_Diversity), and Simpsons Evenness (header -
 Simpsons_Evenness).Microbial_abundance_diversity.csvBacterial communitiesThe sequence count (mothur-derived) for each OTU within each sample. Sequence counts were averaged for replicates within each site and time point to avoid pseudo replication. Each sample is noted as time point (2, 4, 8, 16, 35, 64 days) and site (S1, S2, S3). For sequences prior to bioinformatic analysis, and after joining reads, see NCBI SRA: SRP077840.16S_OTU_table.csv16S OTU taxonomyThe mothur-derived 16S OTU taxonomy. Archaea, chloroplast, and unclassified sequences are not included.final.fasta.subsample.an.0.03.cons.taxonomybiofilm metabolismDissolved oxygen (mg/cm2) production and consumption at each site and over time. Respiration (header - R), gross primary production (header - GPP), and net ecosystem production (header - NEP) are included.metabolism.csv