Can a single sample capture all the bacterial diversity in a sediment core layer?

This was the question Lakes380 research John Pearman and team set out to explore in their recently published research Investigating variability in microbial community composition in replicate environmental DNA samples down lake sediment core. The paper was published in the international journal PLoS one. The research found that while multiple samples were required to capture microbial diversity a single sample was sufficient to track major changes.