Aristotelous, A. C.Klapper, IsaacGrabovsky, Y.Pabst, BreanaPitts, BetseyStewart, Philip S.2016-11-282016-11-282015-08Aristotelous AC, Klapper I, Grabovsky Y, Pabst B, Pitts B, Stewart PS, ʺDiffusive transport through a model host-biofilm system,ʺ Physical Review E 92:2 (August 10, 2015): 022703.1539-3755https://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/11532Free-living biofilms have been subject to considerable attention, and basic physical principles for them are generally accepted. Many host-biofilm systems, however, consist of heterogeneous mixtures of aggregates of microbes intermixed with host material and are much less studied. Here we analyze a key property, namely reactive depletion, in such systems and argue that two regimes are possible: (1) a homogenizable mixture of biofilm and host that in important ways acts effectively like a homogeneous macrobiofilm and (2) a distribution of separated microbiofilms within the host with independent local microenvironments.Article