**2. Materials and Methods**

### *2.1. Sample Collection*

Marine sediment samples were collected from Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park (Latitude 9.127823◦ N, Longitude 79.466155◦ E), Rameshwaram, India. The collected sediment samples were brought to the laboratory in sterile zip-lock plastic bags and stored at 4 ◦C until further use. The sediments were pre-treated with CaCO3 and kept in hot air oven at 55 ◦C for 20 min [17].
