Cyanobacterial biofilm Raw sequence reads
In rivers and freshwater lakes, filamentous cyanobacteria mostly belonging to the Leptolyngbyaceae family bore limestone surfaces as deep as 300 to 500 micrometer by dissolving carbonate at the tip of their 3 to 8 micrometer-thick filaments. The density of burrows decreases downward but at the rock surface it is so high that micrometric debris forms. This disintegrated material on surface of the pebbles can be easily removed, for instance, when pebbles are grinding against each other due wave or current action. Moreover, larvae of insects like flies may remove the loosened material during grazing activity and constructing their cases. After the larvae cases became abandoned, they decay with time and the newly available surfaces become colonized by boring cyanobacteria again. These processes may alternate repeatedly and thus, the surface gets a sculptured/carved appearance, in particular as insect larvae tend to colonize already existing depressions again while being better protected there against predation. The dataset contains raw read sequences of 16S rRNA gene amplicons of epilithic and endolithic, boring cyanobacteria and their associated microbiome.