Investigating microbial functional redundancy by comparison of marine biofilm metagenomes exposed to Deepwater Horizon spill contaminants

Studying marine biofilm recruitment and response to contaminants over time may provide insight on how microbiomes on built structures respond to environmental disturbance. Accordingly, our study goal is to quantify changes in marine biofilm microbiomes following exposure to Deepwater Horizon oil spill contaminants, using metagenomics to determine if functional redundancy occurs between developing biofilms within laboratory microcosms sourced from surface seawater and deep seawater.