A data-driven approach to predicting the attachment density of biofouling organisms

Abstract

The attachment efficiency of biofouling organisms on solid surfaces depends on a variety of factors, including fouler species, nutrition abundance, flow rate, surface morphology and the stiffness of the solid to which attachment is to be made. So far, extensive research has been carried out to investigate the effects of these factors on the attachment of various fouling species. However, the results obtained are species-dependent and scattered. There is no universal rule that can be applied to predict the attachment efficiency of different species. To solve this problem, the authors carried out meta-analysis of the effects of ten selected factors on attachment efficiency, resulting in a universal correlation between the attachment density and the selected factors, which was validated by attachment tests of tubeworms on PDMS surfaces. The results provide a practical approach to predicting the attachment efficiency of fouling organisms and should be of great value in the design of anti-biofouling materials.

Keywords:

• Marine biofouling
• meta-analysis
• dimensional analysis
• regression
• anti-biofouling
• surface topography

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Mendeley Data at http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/f5rbkd4482.2, DOI: 10.17632/f5rbkd4482.2.

Acknowledgements

A.V. thanks Shu Gao for her help in figure production.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the General Research Fund from Hong Kong RGC (PolyU 152193/14E).