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The ecology of Lepas-based biofouling communities on moored and drifting objects, with applications for marine forensic science

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Abstract

Pelagic biofoulers such as barnacles or bryozoans settle and raft on natural debris like pumice or seeds. Recent influxes of marine debris into the world’s oceans, especially plastic, have increased habitat availability for these biofoulers. Goose barnacles in the genus Lepas are some of the most common biofouling taxa globally, and play an important role in biofouling communities as foundation species. We examined community succession, growth rates and isotopic composition in Lepas and their associated biofouling communities in coastal waters of eastern Australia. Community succession on a fixed surface mooring showed an increase in species diversity over 25 weeks. Using the abundances of L. anserifera, L. anatifera, and the amphipods Caprella danilevskii and Jassa slatteryi, we created an equation to estimate minimum duration at sea. Predators such as the polychaete Amphinome rostrata may influence the biofouling community, as can beach scavengers once floating debris is cast ashore. We report a new maximum growth rate for L. anserifera of 1.45 mm−1, and our study is the first to report growth rates for any species of Lepas faster than 1 mm day−1. Lepas were larger on moored floats than on smaller, free-floating drifters. δ18O content of Lepas shells was a robust predictor of sea surface temperatures during formation for L. anatifera and L. anserifera. Our findings have important applications for estimating drift duration and trajectories of marine debris.

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Availability of data and material

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available at https://github.com/tmesaglio/Lepas-Marine-Forensic-Tool

Code availability

All code is available at https://github.com/tmesaglio/Lepas-Marine-Forensic-Tool

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Acknowledgements

We thank Clive Holden from Oceanographic Field Services, who installed and serviced the Bondi mooring; Di Jones for confirming identifications and for her translation of Blamart and Bassinot’s paper from French; David Griffin for providing valuable insights; and, Geoff Liggins, Gilles Ballinger and Marcus Miller from the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries for sampling Lepas from their puerulus floats. Thanks to Andrew Niccum, Sergio Torres Gabarda, Nigel Coombes, James Mercer, Aaron Puckeridge, Alex Milne-Muller, Gary Truong, Craig Steinberg, Felicity McAllister, Edward Buttler, Virginie van Dongen-Vogels, Ian Puckeridge and Nick Lambert for help with specimen and field data collection. Thanks to Di Jones, Janine Ledet, Barry Hutchins, Romain Sabroux, Chris Glasby, Adam Yates, Megan McCuller, Richard Willan, Peter Poortman, Brendan Lanham, Pat Hutchings, Sabine Rech, Mark McGrouther, Andrew Hosie, and Nick Lambert for their identifications. Thanks to Andrew Hosie, Jerry Kudenov and Andy Baker for help with data analysis and preparation of the manuscript, and to our reviewers for providing thoughtful comments that substantially improved the manuscript. This is contribution no. 266 of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science.

Funding

Mass spectrometry sample preparation and analysis was carried out at the UNSW Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Facility, part of the Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, and was in part enabled by the granting of an in-kind honours scholarship by A/Prof. Mark Raftery. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Marine Science and Innovation, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia

    Thomas P. Mesaglio, Hayden T. Schilling, Shane T. Ahyong & Iain M. Suthers

  2. Sydney Institute of Marine Science, Chowder Bay Road, Mosman, 2088, Australia

    Hayden T. Schilling & Iain M. Suthers

  3. Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Facility, Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia

    Lewis Adler

  4. Australian Museum, Sydney, 2010, Australia

    Shane T. Ahyong

  5. Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia

    Ben Maslen

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  1. Thomas P. Mesaglio
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Contributions

Thomas Mesaglio: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Software, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Writing – Original Draft, Visualisation. Hayden Schilling: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Software, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision. Lewis Adler: Methodology, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Writing – Review & Editing. Shane Ahyong: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision. Ben Maslen: Software, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing. Iain Suthers: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision.

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Mesaglio, T.P., Schilling, H.T., Adler, L. et al. The ecology of Lepas-based biofouling communities on moored and drifting objects, with applications for marine forensic science. Mar Biol 168, 21 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-021-03822-1

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