![](media/image1.wmf){width="2.9479166666666665in"
height="1.9236111111111112in"}

**Objectives:** To understand the concept of a fouling community. To
show the diversity found in such a community. To observe the adaptations
of organisms.

**Methods:** Students will observe the fouling community in its habitat
and under dissecting scopes.

**Background:** The fouling community is a specialized group of
organisms that grow on hard surfaces in marine waters. These creatures
begin their life as plankton and then attach to a hard surface. Hard
surfaces along the Georgia coastline are rare. Within four hours of a
surface being placed in the water, bacteria start growing on that
surface, changing it, making it more attractive to other organisms. Each
successive group of organisms changes the surface and thus the community
changes too. Soon nothing can be seen except life! It is in the form of
sea lettuce, sea weed, oysters, barnacles, sea squirts, fish, shrimp and
many others. In *The Living Dock*, Jack Rudloe states \" I doubt that
any habitat in the world has the competition for space that a fouling
community has. Every inch on a dock is colonized by barnacles, oysters,
hydroids or sponges, each trying to push the other out or coat it
over.\" Organisms can be smothered, squeezed out or pushed off.

This amazing conglomeration of life is a wonderful thing - unless it is
growing on the bottom of your boat. The additional mass and increased
friction of critters in the water weighs and slows the boat down. This
community of life fouls the bottom of the boat, thus the name *fouling
community*.

Once attached, the organisms rely on the water to bring them food and
oxygen while carrying away their waste. Some of this life grows in areas
that are alternately exposed and covered by the water. Special
adaptations allow them to survive these changes. Barnacles and oysters
close their shells tightly. Fish and shrimp head for deeper waters. Each
has its role to play in this special community.

**Procedure:**

\- Explain the fouling community to the students. Have them name the
various hazards of living in such an area (*temperature and salinity
changes, competition, dehydration if in the intertidal zone*)

-Take them to the dock. Caution them about the floating dock and safety
concerns. Have the students lay on the dock with just their head hanging
over. With careful observation, they can see the fouling community in
all its activity.

\- Once the students have spent 5 minutes for observation, hand them the
worksheet \"The Living Dock.\" They should circle all the organisms they
see from their observation point. Have them make note of the behavior of
each of those organisms.

\- Ask the students how these organisms feed. What are they eating?

**Evaluation:** Have the students define a fouling community. Ask the
students what kind of adaptations allow the fouling community to survive
the changes in its environment. Have them name some fouling community
members.

![](media/image2.wmf){width="3.9243055555555557in"
height="1.7118055555555556in"}![](media/image3.wmf){width="1.4736111111111112in"
height="1.1375in"}

![](media/image4.wmf){width="1.625in" height="1.0625in"}

![](media/image5.wmf){width="1.3888888888888888in"
height="1.2131944444444445in"}

sea lettuce mussels
oysters![](media/image6.wmf){width="1.2256944444444444in"
height="0.9118055555555555in"}

![](media/image7.wmf){width="0.9736111111111111in"
height="0.8743055555555556in"}![](media/image8.wmf){width="1.3368055555555556in"
height="0.9493055555555555in"}

red algae tunicates
limpets![](media/image1.wmf){width="2.2506944444444446in"
height="0.9in"}

![](media/image9.wmf){width="1.6513888888888888in"
height="1.0631944444444446in"}![](media/image10.wmf){width="0.5125in"
height="0.975in"}

sea anemone sea whip blennies

![](media/image11.wmf){width="1.448611111111111in"
height="0.9743055555555555in"}![](media/image12.wmf){width="1.2243055555555555in"
height="1.0243055555555556in"}![](media/image13.wmf){width="0.9868055555555556in"
height="1.148611111111111in"}

bryozoan hydrozoan sponge

![](media/image14.wmf){width="1.5493055555555555in"
height="1.011111111111111in"}

![](media/image15.wmf){width="1.7118055555555556in"
height="1.0611111111111111in"}

![](media/image16.wmf){width="1.0486111111111112in" height="1.0in"}

sea roach grass shrimp brittle stars

![](media/image17.wmf){width="1.2868055555555555in"
height="0.9743055555555555in"}

![](media/image18.wmf){width="0.95in" height="0.9125in"}

> blue crab polychaete worm

THE LIVING DOCK FACT SHEET

Sea lettuce Two cells thick, green, near water surface. Edible

Red algae Red pigment masks chlorophyll, some species edible.

Mussels Bivalve, attach by byssal threads, filter feeders, filters 9 gal
water per hour. All species edible, but not all are palatable.

Oysters Bivalve, commercially valuable, filter feeder, changes sex after
6 months (to female), lives approximately ten years.

Limpets Univalve, algae eater, stays in same place\--hugs tightly,
edible.

Sea anemone Stinging cells, eats fish, detritus, plankton, not sessile.

Blennie Small fish, detritus eater, hides in shells.

Blue Crab Back legs adapted for swimming, blue claws, edible. Males have
a narrow apron, females a wide, rounded apron for carrying eggs.

Grass shrimp Translucent, detritus eater, food for crabs/fish. Eggs
tucked under abdomen.

Sea whip Soft coral (Gorgonian), colony of animals, yellow/purple,
filter

feeders.

Bryozoan Moss animal, filter feeder, colony of animals.

Hydrozoan Colonial animal, colonies branch causing a resemblance to
plants, have minute tentacles, related to jellyfish.

Sponge Encrusting colony of animals, filter feeders, colors range from

tan to yellow to red or purple.

Sea roach Isopod, runs over edges, scavenger.

Brittlestars Echinoderm, radial symmetry, feeds on bentic animals.

Polychaete Worm Segmented worms with tentacle-like appendages on head,
some free-swimming, some make tubes out of sand, mud.

Tunicates Also called sea squirts, chordates, filter feeders, has 2
siphons.

![](media/image19.wmf){width="5.511111111111111in"
height="3.5104166666666665in"}