Biofouling is generally considered a serious threat for human coastal activities such as aquaculture, and the ecological role of fouling organisms associated with fish-farm cages re mains one of the most debated topics in the ecological field. However, although biofouling may cause significant problems related to human health, environmental impact and financial losses, in the past decade there has been an increasing interest in developing methods to promote the growth of biofouling on artificial structures as a strategy to mitigate human impacts and reduce the organic enrichment caused by net-cage fish farming. Here we investigated the filtration activity of biofouling assemblages colonizing artificial substrata located within a harbor. The main objective of the study was to determine if and how changes in composition and functioning of biofouling may be affected by hypoxic conditions that periodically occur within the port site selected for this study. To this purpose, artificial panels were used as biofouling collectors and were brought back to the laboratory seasonally where they were divided in 3 subgroups and acclimated at 3 different oxygen levels to mimic the naturally occurring oxygenic conditions. Clearance and respiration rates of each community were measured 6 and 24 h after the beginning of each treatment. Regardless of experimental conditions, performance of the communities was affected by the seasonality and the amount of biomass recruiting on the panels, mainly composed of crustaceans, ascidians, polychaetes, seaweeds and several introduced species. Our study demonstrated that, in particular cases, fouling assemblages linked to aquaculture facilities may contribute to reducing environmental impact and at the same time may serve as input for their re-use in different disciplines.

中文翻译：

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与地中海封闭场所水产养殖设施相关的生物污垢的功能作用

生物污垢通常被认为是对水产养殖等人类沿海活动的严重威胁，与养鱼场网箱相关的污垢生物的生态作用仍然是生态领域争论最多的话题之一。然而，尽管生物污垢可能会导致与人类健康、环境影响和经济损失相关的重大问题，但在过去十年中，人们越来越关注开发促进人造结构上生物污垢生长的方法，以此作为减轻人类影响和减少人类影响的策略。网箱养鱼造成的有机富集。在这里，我们研究了定植位于港口内的人工基质的生物污垢组合的过滤活动。该研究的主要目的是确定生物污垢的组成和功能的变化是否以及如何受到本研究选择的港口场地内周期性发生的缺氧条件的影响。为此，人造板被用作生物污垢收集器，并按季节带回实验室，在那里它们被分为 3 个亚组，并在 3 个不同的氧气水平下适应，以模拟自然发生的含氧条件。在每次处理开始后 6 和 24 小时测量每个群落的清除率和呼吸率。无论实验条件如何，群落的表现都受到季节性和面板上生物量招募量的影响，主要由甲壳类、海鞘类、多毛类、海藻和几种引入的物种组成。