The Biogeochemical Features of Kuwaiti Water in the Northwestern Arabian Gulf: Current State of Knowledge and Future

Al-Said, Turki; Sarkar, Amit; Madhusoodhanan, Rakhesh

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-51506-5_4

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Apart from being an important regional nursery ground for several species of fishes and shrimps, it is a water body of vast environmental, economic, and cultural significance to the State of Kuwait and to the region. The waters of Kuwait Bay are significantly affected by global ocean acidification events [22,23] as well as other environmental and anthropogenic stressors in the form of microplastics [24,25], dust [14], naturally occurring radioactive material [26,27], metals [28], and wastewater [29,30]. Wastewater discharge introduces a significant influx of antibiotics and other pharmaceutical agents into the marine environment of Kuwait [29,30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity and spatiotemporal variations in bacterial and archaeal communities within Kuwaiti territorial waters of the Northwest Arabian Gulf

Fakhraldeen,

Al-Haddad,

Habibi

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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Kuwaiti territorial waters of the northwest Arabian Gulf represent a unique aquatic ecosystem prone to various environmental and anthropogenic stressors that pose significant constraints on the resident biota which must withstand extreme temperatures, salinity levels, and reducing conditions, among other factors to survive. Such conditions create the ideal environment for investigations into novel functional genetic adaptations of resident organisms. Firstly, however, it is essential to identify said organisms and understand the dynamic nature of their existence. Thus, this study provides the first comprehensive analysis of bacterial and archaeal community structures in the unique waters of Kuwait located in the Northwest Arabian Gulf and analyzes their variations with respect to depth, season, and location, as well as their susceptibility to changes in abundance with respect to various physicochemical parameters. Importantly, this study is the first of its kind to utilize a shotgun metagenomics approach with sequencing performed at an average depth of 15 million paired end reads per sample, which allows for species-level community profiling and sets the framework for future functional genomic investigations. Results showed an approximately even abundance of both archaeal (42.9%) and bacterial (57.1%) communities, but significantly greater diversity among the bacterial population, which predominantly consisted of members of the Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, and Bacteroidetes phyla in decreasing order of abundance. Little to no significant variations as assessed by various metrics including alpha and beta diversity analyses were observed in the abundance of archaeal and bacterial populations with respect to depth down the water column. Furthermore, although variations in differential abundance of key genera were detected at each of the three sampling locations, measurements of species richness and evenness revealed negligible variation (ANOVA p<0.05) and only a moderately defined community structure (ANOSIM r2 = 0.243; p>0.001) between the various locations. Interestingly, abundance of archaeal community members showed a significant increase (log2 median ratio of RA = 2.6) while the bacterial population showed a significant decrease (log2 median ratio = -1.29) in the winter season. These findings were supported by alpha and beta diversity analyses as well (ANOSIM r2 = 0.253; p>0.01). Overall, this study provides the first in-depth analysis of both bacterial and archaeal community structures developed using a shotgun metagenomic approach in the waters of the Northwest Arabian Gulf thus providing a framework for future investigations of functional genetic adaptations developed by resident biota attempting to survive in the uniquely extreme conditions to which they are exposed.

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