Nina Schaefer, Melanie J Bishop, Ana B Bugnot, Brett Herbert, Andrew S Hoey, Mariana Mayer-Pinto, Craig D H Sherman, Cian Foster-Thorpe, Maria L Vozzo, Katherine A Dafforn
Concrete infrastructure in coastal waters is increasing. While adding complex habitat and manipulating concrete mixtures to enhance biodiversity have been studied, field investigations of sub-millimetre-scale complexity and substrate colour are lacking. Here, the interacting effects of 'colour' (white, grey, black) and 'microtexture' (smooth, 0.5 mm texture) on colonisation were assessed at three sites in Australia. In Townsville, no effects of colour or microtexture were observed. In Sydney, spirorbid polychaetes occupied more space on smooth than textured tiles, but there was no effect of microtexture on serpulid polychaetes, bryozoans and algae...
March 25, 2024: Biofouling