Dynamics of a biofouling community in finfish aquaculture: a case study from the South Adriatic Sea

Abstract

Biofouling is one of the challenges that can strongly affect the finfish farm economy. Although several studies on biofouling in aquaculture have been conducted in the Mediterranean Sea, they focused on specific taxa or were limited to a particular period of sampling. The present study investigated for the first time the development, composition and variation in a biofouling community in a finfish farm with immersion time, season and depth. The results indicate that all these factors influence biofouling succession and recruitment. Moreover, the species that had a crucial role in structuring the community and in the farm cleaning activities were the ascidian Styela plicata and the bivalve Mytilus galloprovincialis. Compared with the literature data, the results highlight the heterogeneity in the composition of the biofouling present in the Mediterranean Sea. Moreover, such knowledge of the biofouling community could provide important information about management efforts and the costs that farmers will face when siting new fish farms.

Keywords:

• Styela plicata
• Mediterranean sea
• Mytilus galloprovincialis
• recruitment
• succession
• fouling

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Maricoltura Mattinatese fish farm and the employees for their collaboration during the field activities. They are very grateful to Prof. F. Rindi for the algal identification and to Dr M.B. Scipione for the amphipod identification.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.