Ecology of fouling on submerged surfaces in a polluted harbour

Growth on submerged substrates (fouling or "Aufwuchs") has already been the object of numerous studies especially with regard to its economic implications. The scarcity of investigations on the influence of pollution on development and evolution of the fouling-biocoenosis is surprising. As far as we know the smaller fauna and flora in this particular situation have never been studied quantitatively. Therefore, in 1963, 1964 and 1965, a number of experiments were carried out in the harbour of Ostend (Belgium) on submerged substrates of different nature, in order to study the following less known aspects of fouling: a) the successive stages in the development of fouling, from bacteria to macro-organisms. b) the influence of several factors on its composition and evolution: 1) abiotic-factors: temperature, salinity, nature of the substrate, and certainly not less important: pollution. 2) biotic-factors: inter- and intraspecific competition for place and food; predation etc... c) the physico-chemical composition of the fouling. d) the qualitative and quantitative composition of the micro-, meio- and macrofauna and flora in the fouling. e) last but not least: the trophic chain. All these questions having been studied in detail, we can only discuss in this paper the most important results