Multiple stressors affect function rather than taxonomic structure of freshwater microbial communities

Microbial community responses to environmental stressors are often characterised by assessing changes in taxonomic structure, but such changes, or lack thereof, may not accurately reflect functional changes that are critical to ecosystem processes. While community-level functional responses have been studied, these are often done under highly controlled, single-stressor scenarios that fail to reflect the complexities of multiple interacting environmental stressors in field conditions. We conducted a manipulative experiment to investigate the individual and combined effects of nutrient enrichment and salinisation – two key, interacting stressors in freshwater systems – on the taxonomic structure and metabolic function of benthic microbial communities using 1,000 L open freshwater ponds established >10 years ago in the field. Microbial communities were pre-established on tiles under ambient conditions for 30 days, and then transferred to ponds with elevated nutrients (+10mg/L N, +1mg/L..., , , # Multiple stressors affect function rather than taxonomic structure of freshwater microbial communities **Principle Investigator Contact Information** ``` Name: Rose Fuggle Institution: University of Sydney Email: [e-mail] ``` **Alternate Contact Information** ``` Name: Ziggy Marzinelli Institution: University of Sydney Email: [e-mail] ``` #### Dataset Overview This dataset contains the data in Fuggle et al 2024 npj biofilms and microbiomes, testing the hypothesis that the structure and function of freshwater benthic microbial communities are affected by salinisation and nutrient enrichment, and that combined stressor effects differ from the sum of individual stressor effects. Data was obtained from benthic microbial communities grown on tiles in outdoor mesocosms. It includes 1) biofilm in situ functional metrics, including oxygen production and consumption, concentration of green alage, diatoms and cyanobacteria, total chlorophyll a concentr...,