Inhibition of the Development of a Marine Sessile Community

Abstract

BETWEEN October 1958 and September 1959 two panels of ‘Tuffnol’, each 2 ft. square, were suspended on either side of a raft at Port Royal, Jamaica. The purpose of these panels was to collect data on the settlement of an ascidian, Ascidia nigra. Each panel was examined at 2-monthly intervals, the two panels being examined on alternate months. When a panel had been examined it was cleaned before replacement on the raft. In this way a fresh settlement surface was provided each month. In the course of the two months in which a panel was exposed a dense growth of sessile animals always developed on it, usually dominated by Balanus amphitrite and Didemnum maculosum, with smaller numbers of other ascidians (A. nigra, Diplosoma macdonaldi, Symplegma viride, Polyclinum constellatum), serpulid worms, lamelli-branchs, bryozoans and the alga Enteromorpha sp.