Chemical characterization of a marine conditioning film

Conditioning film grown on glass panels was analyzed for organic carbon and nitrogen, total carbohydrates, aldoses, uronic acids, and proteins. These compounds showed non-linear increase over the period of immersion. Total carbohydrate-C, aldose-C, uronic acid-C, and protein-C accounted for 5.59–23.50%, 0.6–5%, 1–5%, and 4–14% of organic carbon, respectively, while aldose-C accounted for 10–72% of the total carbohydrate-C. Aldoses such as rhamnose, arabinose, xylose, mannose, and glucose were generally present in the conditioning film. A principal component analysis based on weight percentages of aldoses established three factors that contributed ∼77% of the total variance. The first factor was influenced by the abundance of rhamnose and accounted for 41% of the total variance. The second factor was influenced by the concentrations of arabinose and xylose, whereas the third factor was controlled by ribose and galactose, thereby implicating the role of terrestrial and microbial input to the conditioning film. These changes in the chemistry of the conditioning film may play some role in influencing microbial adhesion to surfaces.