About the Authors

Tianyu Zhang

Affiliation Department of Mathematical Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America

Breana Pabst

Affiliation Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America

Isaac Klapper

Affiliation Department of Mathematics, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Philip S. Stewart

phils@biofilm.montana.edu

Affiliations Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America, Center for Biofilm Engineering, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: PS. Performed the experiments: BP. Analyzed the data: PS BP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: BP. Wrote the paper: TZ PS. Conceived the basic model structure and identified case studies: PS. Formulated the mathematical model: TZ IK PS. Implemented numerical solution of the model case studies: TZ.