Biological and biophysical characteristics of algal blooms in Omani coastal waters

Algal blooms are periodic events inducing oxygen depletions, fish kills incidents and taking offline desalination plants. In the Sea of Oman, seasonal blooms are contributed predominantly by the dinoflagellate Noctiluca scintillans. Current methods of algal bloom detection and monitoring are time consuming, because they are based on a taxonomic identification of collected phytoplankton samples. The capability to detect blooms quickly and to inform the aquaculture farms and desalination plants operators along the Omani coast about forthcoming oxygen depletions, clogging of membranes and fish kill incidents induced by the Noctiluca blooms would mark a new step in monitoring algal blooms. With this regard, an express- method of detecting the Noctiluca bloom onset and development, which is based on the capability of Noctiluca cells to emit light, in the form of bioluminescence, is proposed. The bioluminescent characteristics of the Omani coastal waters are still largely unknown. There is no information if other microbial species can interfere with the bioluminescence intensity of Noctiluca. The project is aimed to study the seasonality of Noctiluca blooms and to measure the bioluminescence intensity of Noctiluca cells in a wide range of in situ concentrations and environmental conditions. The educational objective of the project is to serve as the practical material for the undergraduate and graduate courses taught at SQU in the field of marine biology and biotechnology.