Monthly succession of marine biofouling communities in the Arabian Gulf

This study was undertaken as part of a collaborative project titled Biotechnological Applications of Marine Biofilms developing on solid surfaces in the Arabian Gulf funded by research grant (SQU-GCC/CL/17/02). The succession of marine biofouling communities (mature biofilms) on plastic panels were investigated over a period of six months in four locations in the Arabian Gulf (Fintas and Salmiya marinas in Kuwait, and Bandar Rowdha and Al Mouj marinas in Oman). Monthly assessment of the physico-chemical parameters of the seawater at each location was done using portable meters (thermometer, refractometer, pH meter, turbidity meter and conductivity/TDS meter). The concentrations of nutrients and elements were analysed using ion chromatography (IC) and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), respectively. After each month, the developed biofilm on each panel was quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed as follows; total wet weight, abundance of bacteria using epifluorescence microscopy, chlorophyll a concentrations using spectrophotometry, percent coverage of macrofoulers, and presence or absence of signs of grazing based on visual observations and/or photodocumentation (using Image J software), which was also used to assess the presence/absence and dominance of macrofouling species. Additionally, the composition of the microbial community was investigated using 16S amplicon sequencing, resulting in supplementary data sets for bacterial community composition, predicted bacterial metabolic pathways (Bowman and Ducklow 2015, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0135868), and presence/absence of microalgae based on their chloroplast 16S.