Spatial resolution of microbial community members within cyanobacterial mats from temperate mud flats

Vertically stratified cyanobacterial mats were characterized through 16s metabarcoding to describe the spatial variation both horizontally and vertically. Through this study we found small scale changes in microbial communities along the vertical structure of a singular mat but did not find any significant differences with the horizontal distribution of microbial communities. These results are consistent with previous work on microbial mats looking at the vertical structure. However, other studies have found that mats vary horizontally although these studies investigate microbial community structure over large spatial scales than our work.