Ney's Spring 16S amplicon sequencing
DNA extraction of biomass from the preserved filters was done using a Qiagen DNAeasy powersoil kit with modifications as outlined in Suzuki et al, 2013. Samples were then quantified using a Qubit fluorometer (ThermoFisher Scientific, USA) and were sent to MrDNA (Shallowater TX, USA) for PCR amplification using the 16S rRNA universal primers 515F/806R as described by the Earth Microbiome Project protocol (EMP consortium, 2017). These were then sequenced by MrDNA using Illumina Mi-seq 300 paired-end sequencing.