Time series data of microbial communities

Time series abundances of bacterial prey species and their morphotypes appearing in time with and without a protist predator species. All microcosms were started with equal abundance for all prey species either with or without the predator (See "Notes" section in the data file for the descriptions of species). Static microcosms consisted of 20 mL Brunner-CR2 medium in 50-mL cell culture flasks, incubated at 25°C. Prey and predator numbers were adjusted in the experimental medium to 1.8 x 107 cells mL-1 and 4.2 x 104 cells mL-1, respectively. During the experiment, we performed daily 10-fold dilutions by transferring 10% of the community into fresh medium. All microcosms were sampled 32 times (from 3 to 34 days ). All bacterial species were quantified by plating on Brunner CR-2 medium. All visible, differently coloured colonies were recorded after 2 days of incubation at 25°C using different dilutions from 103 to 108. Cell numbers of protist predator were estimated by counting cells fixed with 0.2% Lugol’s iodine solution under an inverted microscope with a counting chamber.