Microbial Community Composition in lakes - Ecological characteristics of the sample at North Temperate Lakes LTER 2002 - 2007

Microbial community composition is inferred by a combination of automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA) and PCR-generated clone library analysis. Clone libraries include both the 16S rRNA gene and the 16S-23S ribosomal intergenic spacer fragment. Phylogenetic assignments for individual ARISA fragments are obtained by comparing the ARISA fragment length from each clone to all of the profiles stored in our database. We have analyzed over 3900 clones obtained from 41 lakes that represent the range of trophic types found in temperate landscapes. Querying by ecological characteristics of the sample allows the user to retrieve sample IDs, sample dates, lake information (region, type, size, depth) and physical/chemical data (water temperature, clarity, pH, DOC, SUVA, TN, TP, nitrates/nitrites). The data can be filtered by lake name, sample date, lake information (region, type, size, depth), and physical/chemical data (water temperature, clarity, pH, DOC, SUVA, TN, TP, nitrates/nitrites). The output includes links to individual sample records, which contain links to the taxonomic composition of the sample inferred by dynamically matching clones to ARISA fragments in the individual sample