Fig. 1: Experimental design and diversity results.
From: Beach sand oil spills select for generalist microbial populations
The ex situ mesocosm experiment (A) tested the effect of oxic-anoxic cycles (B) on microbial oil biodegradation. The mesocosm experiment had three oiled chambers and three control chambers that were sampled at specific oxygen saturation points (oxygen levels dropped due to microbial oil consumption and were reestablished based on manual aeration of the chambers). Additionally, datasets from a field study at Pensacola Beach (C) that had samples taken before oil contaminated the beach (Pre-Spill), while the beach was contaminated with oil (Spill-Oiled, and Weathered), and after oil had been removed/biodegraded (Recovered) were reanalyzed here. Molecular functional diversity was evaluated with the Chao-Shen Entropy Estimator and converted to true diversity (1D) to be in effective GO terms (D). Taxonomic diversity based on metagenomic 16S rRNA gene fragments (E) and 16S rRNA gene V4 amplicons (F) was evaluated with coverage-based rarefaction at diversity order q = 2. 2D is equivalent to the inverse Simpson index and represents the effective number of dominant OTUs. In D through F, Pensacola field samples are designated by letters that are identical to those used in our previous study [7] and shown in C. In categories with replicates, the sample means are shown with one standard deviation and the number of replicates analyzed. N/A* indicates that no DNA from T1O amplified during PCR. N/A** indicates that C and F did not have amplicons sequenced for them.
