HADFIELD, Michael G.; SHIKUMA, Nicholas; HUANG, Ying; NEDVED, Brian; ZARDUS, John; University of Hawaii at Manoa: Do bacteria dictate the sequence of biofouling community development by signalling larval settlement?

Marine biofouling communities accumulate in predictable successional stages characterized by the appearance of new invertebrate species. Larvae of many invertebrate fouling species settle in response to certain biofilm-bacterial species and not to others, as we have shown by testing larvae against single-species bacterial films. Additionally, bacteria provide a physical surface that enhances the strength of larval and post-metamorphic juvenile attachment, as determined by measurements in a turbulent flow cell. Finally, physical and chemical characteristics of surfaces determine, at least in part, the composition of the adherent bacterial consortia. We thus predict that changing surface bacterial communities exert a major determining influence on the order that a biofouling community develops.