ABSTRACT
This chapter reports an ongoing experimental study that uses ecological principles of succession as the basis for making predictive models about biodeterioration of archaeological materials in marine underwater sites. The ecological succession theory that provides the stimulation for people's experimental studies. The study of biodeterioration requires an understanding of the ecological processes that take place in benthic environments. Odum's general system model of succession forms a functional general framework. Underwater archaeologists know about the harmful consequences of ecological succession, as most of the archaeological material and objects can be colonized by benthic communities known as biofouling. The experimental technique has been adopted from the microcosm model based on studying ecosystems development at a microcosmic scale, based in small inert surfaces, such as glass, submerged in water under good light conditions, with a good balance of inorganic salts, and with the addition of sediments and propagules of plant and animal species from the natural habitat.
