Data from: A novel real-world ecotoxicological dataset of pelagic microbial community responses to wastewater

Real-world observational datasets that record and quantify
pressure-stressor-response linkages between effluent discharges and
natural aquatic systems are rare.  With global wastewater volumes
increasing at unprecedented rates, it is urgent that the present dataset
is available to provide the necessary information about microbial
community structure and functioning.  Field studies were
performed at two time-points in the Austral summer. 
Single-species and microbial community whole effluent toxicity (WET)
testing was performed at a complete range of effluent concentrations and
two salinities, with accompanying environmental data to provide new
insights into nutrient and organic matter cycling, and to identify
ecotoxicological tipping points.  The two salinity regimes were
chosen to investigate future scenarios based on a predicted salinity
increase at the study site, typical of coastal regions with rising sea
levels globally.  Flow cytometry, amplicon
sequencing of 16S and 18S rRNA genes and micro-fluidic
quantitative polymerase-chain reactions (MFQPCR) were used to determine
chlorophyll-a and total bacterial cell numbers and size, as well as
taxonomic and functional diversity of pelagic microbial
communities.  This strong pilot dataset could be
replicated in other regions globally and would be of high value to
scientists and engineers to support the next advances in microbial
ecotoxicology, environmental biomonitoring and estuarine water quality
modelling.