Florida Keys Cyanobacterial Tufts and Turf Algae

Here, we paired an in-situ assessment of photophysiology with 16S rRNA metabarcoding to understand better how tufting benthic cyanobacterial communities compare to algal turfs in overall prokaryotic assemblage structure and in their potential to contribute to benthic primary productivity in coral reef ecosystems. We further interrogated the community structure of epilithic tufting cyanobacterial communities using shotgun metagenomic sequencing of bulk-extracted DNA to resolve community composition more fully in this important benthic functional group in the Florida Keys.