Engineering an Incubation Environment That Mimics Conditions for Coastal Microbiome Studies

Coastal environments are dynamic and can vary widely on short- or long-term scales depending on location and weather. Incubation equipment that reflects these changes through programmable gradient light and temperature cycles would permit more precise coastal microbiome studies. Here we present an open-source incubation environment that mimics conditions for coastal microbiome studies using a modified shaking water bath that has fully customizable temperature and light gradients that can also mimic real-time field conditions. We compared coastal microbial community profiles incubated and in our build mimicking field conditions over 48 h. Analyses of congruence indicated significant overlap (p > 0.2) between microbial communities incubated and at each time point.