Environmental Metagenomics

Microbial predator-prey interactions play a crucial role in aquatic food webs. Bacterivorous protists not only regulate the quantity and biomass of bacterial populations but also profoundly influence the structure of bacterial communities. Consequently, alterations in both the quantity and quality of protist bacterivory can influence the overall structure of aquatic food webs.

INTRODUCTION Understanding the intricacies of microbial interactions with the environment at both the individual and population levels is challenging due to the necessity of integrating multiple different datasets whose variables often cannot be attributed to individual biological entities.

The spring system is located along Penitencia Creek in Alum Rock Park, San Jose, CA, USA (37°23′57.7″N, 121°47′48.8″W) (Fig. 1A). The two sample sites, Mineral Springs 4 and 11 (MS4 and MS11), are located on opposite sides of the creek approximately 250 m from one another (Fig. 1B, C). Samples for geochemical analyses were taken in May 2005, during the dry season, and were filtered on-site using sterile 0.2-µm filters.