Studies on the characteristics of the attached biological communities on the surface of different types of artificial reefs
XU Zhou, HUO Yongwei, JIANG Guoliang, LOU Angang
To explore the community characteristics of microorganisms and biomasses of large organisms attached to the surface of different types of artificial reefs, three types of hanging plates were set up in this study with the surfaces sprayed with nutrient solution (YY and YY2), preservative (FF and FF2), and the control without any substance (DZ and DZ2). The hanging plate experiment was carried out at an artificial reef zone in Laoshan Bay under different temperature conditions. Two months after the hanging plates were released into the sea, the biomass of the surface samples collected from the plates was measured with dry weight method, and the microbial community structure and function each sample were analyzed using metagenomic sequencing method. The results showed that the attached organisms on the surface of the hanging plates were mainly barnacles and carex. The biomass on different hanging plates was in an order of YY > DZ > FF, YY2 > DZ2 > FF2. Spraying nutrient solution showed proliferation effect on the attached organisms whereas spraying preservative had inhibition effect. At phylum level, the attached microorganisms mainly included Ascomycota, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. The category of attached microorganisms on the three types of hanging plates are highly consistent with slight difference in abundance. At the genus level, the main microorganisms are Colletotrichum, Bacillus, Vibrio, Pyricularia, Cycloclasticus and Nitrosopumilus. There are many bacteria with harmful effects on plants, among them marine ammonia-oxidizing and PAHs degrading bacteria reproduce more vigorously in low temperature environment. In terms of microbial gene function, the genes functioning inof “replication, recombination and repair”, “amino acid transport and metabolism”, “translation, ribosome structure and biosynthesis” among others are the most common. The gene of “replication, recombination and repair” are more advantageous at high temperature than that at low temperature. Our findings can provide a scientific basis for reef material selection, ecological restoration and follow-up study of ecosystem functions in artificial reefs.