Figure 3.

Changes in community size over the disturbance experiment. Community size was estimated using qPCR of the 16S rRNA gene and standardized per g soil from which nucleic acids were extracted. (a) Changes in the 16S rRNA gene copies in Control (gold, circles) and disturbed (blue, squares and triangles) mesocosms over the thermal press (weeks 4–16). (b) Changes in the 16S rRNA gene copies in Control, Disturbance (blue squares) and Disturbance + Immigration (pink triangles) mesocosms over the recovery period, weeks 20–45. The Disturbance + Immigration mesocosms received a dispersal event at week 17. Asterisks indicate significant differences by a Kruskal–Wallis test (n.s., not significant; *p < 0.1, ***p < 0.001, with a Dunn correction for multiple comparisons in b).