TY - JOUR
T1 - The effect of substratum type, orientation and depth on the development of bacterial deep-sea biofilm communities grown on artificial substrata deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean
AU - Bellou, Nikoleta
AU - Papathanassiou, Evangelos
AU - Dobretsov, Sergey
AU - Lykousis, Vassilis
AU - Colijn, Franciscus
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the EU FP6 KM3NeT Project, contract no. 011937. The authors want to thank Wolfgang Voigt (FTZ, Germany) and Rüdiger Kiehn (GKSS, Germany) for their the tremendous work and thinking to set the authors’ ‘surreal’ deep-sea experimental idea and setup into context, as well as for their support before, during and after the cruises. Torsten Staller (FTZ, Germany) is thanked for his support throughout the experiment. Tom Mueller and Gerd Niehus (IfM-Geomar, Germany) are thanked for their help on the mooring line design. The officers and all crewmembers of the R/V AEGAEO, as well as the head of the cruises Spyros Stavrakakis are acknowledged for their work and assistance during the mooring deployments and recoveries. The cruises were co-financed by the EU FP6 SESAME Project, contract no. 036946 and by the EU FP6 HERMES Project, contract no. 511234. Many thanks also to the Antonis Magoulas laboratory, represented by Elena Sarropoulou (HCMR, Greece), especially for the pleasant hospitality throughout the duration of the analyses, as well as Katerina Skaraki (HCMR, Greece) for her help during the analyses. Special thanks to Peter Koske (CAU, Germany) for supporting and believing in this project.
PY - 2012/2
Y1 - 2012/2
N2 - An increasing number of deep-sea studies have highlighted the importance of deep-sea biofouling, especially in relation to the protection of deep-sea instruments. In this study, the microbial communities developed on different substrata (titanium, aluminum, limestone, shale and neutrino telescope glass) exposed for 155 days at different depths (1500 m, 2500 m, 3500 m and 4500 m) and positions (vertical and horizontal) in the Eastern Mediterranean Deep Sea were compared. Replicated biofilm samples were analyzed using a Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms (T-RFLP) method. The restriction enzymes CfoI and RsaI produced similar total numbers (94, 93) of different T-RFLP peaks (T-RFs) along the vertical transect. In contrast, the mean total T-RF number between each sample according to substratum type and depth was higher in more samples when CfoI was used. The total species richness (S) of the bacterial communities differed significantly between the substrata, and depended on the orientation of each substratum within one depth and throughout the water column (ANOVA). T-RFLP analyses using the Jaccard similarity index showed that within one depth layer, the composition of microbial communities on different substrata was different and highly altered among communities developed on the same substratum but exposed to fouling at different depths. Based on Multidimensional Scaling Analyses (MDS), the study suggests that depth plays an important role in the composition of deep-sea biofouling communities, while substratum type and orientation of substrata throughout the water column are less important. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study of biofilm development in deep waters, in relation to the effects of substratum type, orientation and depth.
AB - An increasing number of deep-sea studies have highlighted the importance of deep-sea biofouling, especially in relation to the protection of deep-sea instruments. In this study, the microbial communities developed on different substrata (titanium, aluminum, limestone, shale and neutrino telescope glass) exposed for 155 days at different depths (1500 m, 2500 m, 3500 m and 4500 m) and positions (vertical and horizontal) in the Eastern Mediterranean Deep Sea were compared. Replicated biofilm samples were analyzed using a Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms (T-RFLP) method. The restriction enzymes CfoI and RsaI produced similar total numbers (94, 93) of different T-RFLP peaks (T-RFs) along the vertical transect. In contrast, the mean total T-RF number between each sample according to substratum type and depth was higher in more samples when CfoI was used. The total species richness (S) of the bacterial communities differed significantly between the substrata, and depended on the orientation of each substratum within one depth and throughout the water column (ANOVA). T-RFLP analyses using the Jaccard similarity index showed that within one depth layer, the composition of microbial communities on different substrata was different and highly altered among communities developed on the same substratum but exposed to fouling at different depths. Based on Multidimensional Scaling Analyses (MDS), the study suggests that depth plays an important role in the composition of deep-sea biofouling communities, while substratum type and orientation of substrata throughout the water column are less important. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study of biofilm development in deep waters, in relation to the effects of substratum type, orientation and depth.
KW - Mediterranean Sea
KW - artificial substratum
KW - bacteria
KW - biofilm
KW - deep-sea
KW - fouling
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84859566332&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84859566332&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/08927014.2012.662675
DO - 10.1080/08927014.2012.662675
M3 - Article
C2 - 22352335
AN - SCOPUS:84859566332
SN - 0892-7014
VL - 28
SP - 199
EP - 213
JO - Biofouling
JF - Biofouling
IS - 2
ER -