Biofilm diversity patterns across the hierarchical organization of river-floodplain systems.

<p>Data points for each river-floodplain system represent mean values ± SEM of Shannon-Wiener (A) and beta-diversity (B) indices of biofilm communities at each hierarchical level. Diversity indices for each specific identity at each hierarchical level were calculated from group-averaged OTUs abundances within the next lower level (e.g., diversity indices at the floodplain level are calculated using zone-specific OTUs abundances). Prior to diversity indices calculations, 1000 bootstrap iterations were applied to normalize the number of sequenced samples per river at 10. Results associated with the Clark Fork River (orange), Boulder River (blue), Bitterroot River (red), and Madison River (green) are shown separately.