ABSTRACT
The attachment and settlement of marine organisms and the development of biofouling communities on surfaces in the marine environment have been described as “a race of various marine organisms to the surfaces” (Clare et al., 1992) in which bacteria are among the first colonisers (Characklis, 1981; Wahl, 1989; Henschel and Cook, 1990). The competition between organisms for space at surfaces is intensive and multiple factors have been implicated in regulating the settlement as well as the metamorphosis of marine organisms and hence the development of biofouling. For example, biological factors such as predation and grazing from fish, gastropods and other organisms influence the establishment of a fouling community. Furthermore, variations in climate and sea temperature as well as geographic variations and seasonal and environmental factors have been reported to effect the development of fouling communities (Wahl, 1989; Pawlik et
al., 1991; Richmond and Seed, 1991; Pawlik, 1992; Rodriguez et al., 1993). The age of settling larvae, the availability of food and the recognition of other members of their own species (gregarious behavior) also effect the ability of free-living larvae to settle (KnightJones and Stevenson, 1950; Knight-Jones, 1951; Knight-Jones and Crisp, 1953; Crisp and Meadows, 1962; 1963; Crisp, 1974; Buss, 1981; Characklis, 1981; Larman et al., 1982; Bertness and Grosholz, 1985; Crisp et al., 1985; Wahl, 1989; Henschel and Cook, 1990; Svane and Havenhand, 1993). In addition, a series of interactions between bacteria and fouling organisms take place in the marine environment; many of these events are highly specific and bacteria and their exoproducts have been found to offer several means of specificity and strongly select the recruited fauna and flora (Maki et al., 1990; 1994; Mary et al., 1993; Holmström and Kjelleberg, 1994; 1999; Wieczorek et al., 1995; Holmström et al., 1996; Wieczorek and Todd, 1997). Bacterial components such as exopolysaccharides, proteins and fatty acids have been isolated and demonstrated to either increase or decrease the settlement of larvae and spores of sessile organisms (Kirchman et al., 1982b; Maki and Mitchell, 1985; Maki et al., 1990; Szewzyk et al., 1991; Goto et al., 1992; Holmström et al., 1992; 1997; Kitamura et al., 1993; Leitz and Wagne, 1993; Altena and Butler, 1994).
