Biofouling organisms and their salinity tolerance on navigational buoys in upper San Francisco Bay.

• Main Author: Thompson, Dale Layne
• Other Authors: Haderlie, E.C.
• Language: en_US
• Published: Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/18031

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. === The navigational buoys situated along the main shipping channel of San Francisco Bay's upper portions - through San Pablo and Suisun Bays - provide biofouling surfaces of constant depth with known maintenance histories and fixed locations through a mean salinity range of 4 to 24 parts per thousand (ppt). Investigation of the biofoulers of these buoys indicates the typical communities and which species are salinity constrained in range and by what salinity. Twelve sets of samples were taken, each consisting of the surface scrapings of two 929 square centimeter (cm) (one square foot) areas, one with its top margin at the mean waterline, the other with its upper margin at the 61 cm depth level. This was done (with a few exceptions) resulting in 23 individual samples being obtained with 41 species identified and 48,376 individual organisms counted.