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

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 ...