THE INFLUENCE OF TEXTURE AND COMPOSITION OF SURFACE ON THE ATTACHMENT OF SEDENTARY MARINE ORGANISMS

¹ Medical Branch, University of Texas and the Woods Hole Oceanographic, Intitution

1. Submerged samples of 40 different construction materials were used as substrates for the collection of sedentary populations. The barnacle counts in the populations ranged from 980 on asbestos shingles to zero on zinc and on two paint coatings, after three months' immersion in Biscayne Bay at Miami Beach, Florida.

2. Various surface textures of glass plates were found to exert no significant influence on the accumulation and growth of sedentary marine organisms, although smooth clear glass accumulated smaller populations in the comparatively short exposure periods, 1-3 months.

3. The results suggest that efficiency of a substrate as a fouling collector is in general correlated with porosity of surface or with fibrous nature of surface. Smooth, non-porous, non-fibrous surfaces, especially if also hard, seem to be poor accumulators of sedentary organisms.

4. Further testing of substrates is greatly to be desired in this connection.