Experimental data for "The interaction between plastics and microalgae affects community assembly and nutrient availability"

Dataset of the experimental data obtained for the study “The interaction between microplastics and microalgae affects community assembling and nutrient availability” (published on Communications Earth and Environment, DOI: 10.1038/s43247-024-01706-y). This include 5 different tabular files, which are listed below:

Algae growth Values of chlorophyll fluorescence (as a proxy of algal biomass growth, in arbitrary units) in all treatments between days 1 and 17 of the experiment in the 4 different replicates (shown as different columns).

Biofilm growth on plastic Measures of biofilm coverage (in % of plastic fragment's surface) via image analysis after optical microscopy and chlorophyll fluorescence via spectroscopy (after the analysis of 3 replicates per batch, relative standard deviation below 20%). Data at day 0 indicate the fragments before the incubation with the pelagic community. Data are shown for each treatment containing plastic (i.e., plastic, biofilm and dispersal).

Nutrient concentrations Nutrient concentration in every replicate at different days from the beginning of the experiment. Data are average values after three measure replicates (relative standard deviation below 5%). Data below LODs are shown as LOD/2.

Pelagic community composition Counting values of the different algal species from optical microscopy measurement of all treatments after 5, 8 and 15 days (average values after 3 replicates of measures (relative standard deviation below 25%). The inoculum of the pelagic community before the beginning of the experiment is also included. Species not present in the community or not detected are shown as ND.

Photosynthetic efficiency Values of photosynthetic efficiency (measured with pulse-amplitude-modulated fluorescence) in all treatments at day 5, 8 and 15 of the experiment in the 4 different replicates (shown as different columns).