FIG 1.

The successional dynamics of microbial consortia. Differences in microbial community structure and alpha diversity are plotted with respect to native soil communities (labeled as “n”), the 6-week-chitin-enriched communities (labeled as “c”), uninoculated control (labeled as “control”), and different serial dilutions of NAG enrichment in liquid and soil treatments for 0 to 15 weeks. The results are partitioned by initial dilution and incubating conditions (NAG enrichment in liquid on the top and soil on the bottom). The most abundant bacterial (A) and fungal (B) phyla are shown over the 15-week incubation. The alpha diversities of bacteria (C) and fungi (D) were estimated using species richness and Simpson’s evenness.