Influence of Filter Pore Size on Assessing Bacterial Communities in Lake Water

We evaluated the effect of filter pore size on the bacterial communities detected in a range of coastal waters from southern Lake Michigan. A prefiltration step is needed to increase volumes processed when water clarity is low. Analyses of microbial communities differ among studies where in some both filters are analyzed and in others only the smaller pore filter. The results of this study show that results differ between filters analyzed for microbial community analysis using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequence analysis. Making it very difficult to compare studies when various methods are used for water processing.