Fouling community
Encyclopedia
Fouling communities are communities of organisms found on the sides of docks, marinas, harbors, and boats throughout the world. These communities are characterized by the presence of a variety of sessile organisms including ascidians, bryozoans, mussels, tube building polychaetes, sea anemones, and more. Common predators on and around fouling
Biofouling
Biofouling or biological fouling is the undesirable accumulation of microorganisms, plants, algae, or animals on wetted structures.-Impact:...

 communities include small crabs, starfish, fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

, limpets, chitons, and other gastropods.

Fouling communities were highlighted particularly in the literature of marine ecology as a potential example of alternate stable states through the work of John Sutherland in the 1970s at UNC, although this was later called into question by Connell and Sousa.

External links

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/barnacles is the Newcastle University barnacle and biofouling information site.
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