Fig. 2
Community composition showing taxonomic preferences of Patescibacteria in wells and filter fractions across the Hainich groundwater transect. The cross section of the studied groundwater transect (from Kohlhepp et al. [48], modified) shows the karstified main aquifer (HTL; wells studied: H41, H51; dark blue line) that is characterized by higher surface-connection to preferential recharge areas and the hanging thin-bedded alternating limestone-mudstone strata that host the multi-story upper aquifer assemblage (HTU; wells studied H14, H32, H43, H52; thin gray-blue lines). Height above mean sea level (amsl), in meters, is shown along the y-axis and length of hillslope is shown in meters along the x-axis. The colored pie charts show percentages of taxa within Patescibacteria at order level. The taxon, Parcubacteria;other (all Parcubacteria other than the mentioned Parcubacteria orders merged together) was most abundant among Patescibacteria in all the filter fractions of all the wells. The grey pie charts show the relative percentage of Patescibacteria in the total community