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Fair or Foul

January 29, 2018

WHOI postdoctoral scholar Kirstin Meyer points out some brownish bryozoans and orange tunicates on panels she recovered from Woods Hole’s Eel Pond. Along with barnacles, sponges, and other invertebrates, these animals make up the local biofouling community—organisms that grow in abundance on docks, ships, rocks, and other hard, underwater surfaces. Meyer recently monitored their growth in Eel Pond and off the WHOI dock, in an experiment to understand how and why near-shore fouling communities develop and change over time. Meyer saw the community shift as water temperature rose from spring into summer and as later arrivals competed for space. (Photo by Véronique LaCapra, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)