Fig. 5.

Distribution of species throughout the mature (24 h of growth under flow conditions) dual- and four-species biofilms. The bio-volume of pixels from each species is plotted against the thickness of biofilms. The four-species biofilm is more than twice as thick as the dual-species biofilms. The black circle emphasizes data showing that S. rhizophila (Ste), X. retroflexus (Xan), and M. oxydans (Mic) reside in the top layers of the four-species biofilm in relatively high cell numbers simultaneously. The gray circle emphasizes data showing a local bio-volume peak of S. rhizophila (Ste) in the bottom layers of the four-species biofilm. Each curve represents individual biological replicates that are the average of three technical replicates