ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview based on some published work on the biological and technical aspects of marine aufwuchs, example, life forms growing attached to solid/fluid interfaces without depending trophically on their substrata. It gives some reason why attached life is a typically aquatic phenomenon and rarely encountered on land. The chapter deals with the mechanisms of substratum colonization. It treats the subject of “fouling”. The chapter designates the aufwuchs on nonliving substrata, which in the case of man-made, immersed structures often interferes with human interests. It speculates about antifouling solutions as derived from epibiosis research. The physical, biochemical, and biological events leading to the establishment of an aufwuchs community have been thoroughly investigated. Macrofouling on structures subjected to acceleration/deceleration cycles causes additional strain in a four-fold manner: deterioration of material, increase of diameter and thus drag exposed area, increase of surface friction, increase of the so-called added mass.
