Background

The filterable microbial community is diverse and under sampled due to their passage though commonly used 0.2 µm pores. Function is derived from assembled genomes, but a limited number of field and laboratory experiments restricts our understanding of how the filterable community responds to the environment. This work aims to address which filterable microbes form surface biofilms, how the filterable microbial community responds to a carbon-limited system, and to the injection of the cyclic starch-derived Beta-cyclodextrin common in pharmaceuticals