About the Authors

Geoffrey N. Elliott

geoff.elliott@hutton.ac.uk

Affiliation James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, United Kingdom

Nadine Thomas

Affiliation James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, United Kingdom

Marion MacRae

Affiliation Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Aberdeen, Foresterhill, Aberdeen, United Kingdom

Colin D. Campbell

Affiliations James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden

Iain D. Ogden

Affiliation Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Aberdeen, Foresterhill, Aberdeen, United Kingdom

Brajesh K. Singh

Affiliation Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, Australia

Competing Interests

Whilst there is a patent held by two of the authors on a related methodology to the one presented in the manuscript (declared in the text - Singh BK, Campbell, C. 2012. United States Patent Office, Patent number 8,133,876), the authors confirm that this in no way alters the authors’ complete adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials as outlined in the PLoS Editorial and publishing policies.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: GNE BKS. Performed the experiments: GNE NT MM. Analyzed the data: GNE. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: GNE CDC IDO BKS. Wrote the paper: GNE CDC IDO BKS.