Bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequence data supporting the study of changes in microbial diversity over tidal cycles, Dauphin Island, May 2012

This dataset was generated to evaluate short-term changes in bacterial diversity from beach sand impacted by tides. The study was conducted on Dauphin Island, Alabama. The beach was oiled during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, but the sand was not remediated by sand-washing. Sediment samples were intensively collected from twenty transects perpendicular to the shoreline (subtidal to berm) over a five day period in May 2012. Water samples were also collected, corresponding with each transect, and filtered through 0.22um Sterivex filters for DNA extraction. From extracted DNA, the V1-V3 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene was amplified, and single-direction reads were generated using multiplexed, bar-coded primers for pyrosequencing. Field data for all twenty transects and classified bacterial read inventories for four transects are available in corresponding dataset R1.x139.143:0003.