Structure and distribution of some fouling communities off bering island (commander Islands)

Barnacles and mussels are known to predominate in the majority of estuarine fouling communities on artificial substrata in the upper layers of temperate and subarctic waters. Will they predominate in insular fouling communities far from mainland estuarine regions? Investigations carried out in the summer of 1991 at Nikolskoye Harbour, Bering Island (Commander Islands) have shown that fouling communities on the pier at Bering Island were composed mainly of barnacles and laminarian algae at different depths, and an ecotone of red algae was found. Fouling communities defined on the basis of quantitative and qualitative analyses of samples did not correspond exactly with those based on visual observations. In contrast to some of the Aleutian and Kuril Isles, neither mussel fouling nor natural mussel beds were found on the open coasts off Bering Island. The absence of mussels is probably due to sea otter predation, with the result that a kelp fouling community develops instead of mussel fouling.

Key words:

• fouling communities
• barnacles
• mussels
• kelp fouling
• sea otter predation