Identifying and studying the structure of fouling communities in Artificial reef of the Bahrakan coast of Khuzestan

This study was conducted to identify and study the communities structure of adhesive organisms or the fouling of 13 years old artificial reefs on the coast of Bahrakan along the west of the Persian Gulf. fouling sample was collected seasonally from spring 2016 to winter 2016 from 4 sampling sites using quadrates 25 × 25 cm by diving operation. Based on the biomass (wet weight), Anthozoa corals with 88% of the total biomass, contain the most adhesive mass, followed by sponges (10%) and hydrozoa corals and Arthropod with 1% of the total biomass. The spring season showed the highest average rate, which was due to the biomass of the Antozoa group with 89% in this season. Based on the cluster test, the two winter and autumn seasons have a similar percentage of 80% and the summer and spring seasons show a similar percentage of 50%. Also, based on cluster analysis of two structures A, D, the similarity level of 45% and B, C indicate the similarity level of 80%