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Application of bubble streams to control biofouling on marine infrastructure—pontoon-scale implementation

There is a lack of cost-effective, environmentally-friendly tools available to manage marine biofouling accumulation on static artificial structures such as drilling rigs, wind turbines, marine farms, and port and marina infrastructure. For there to be uptake and refinement of tools, emerging techno...

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Autores principales: Hopkins, Grant A., Scott, Nicholas, Cahill, Patrick
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10493092/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37701841
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.16004
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author Hopkins, Grant A.
Scott, Nicholas
Cahill, Patrick
author_facet Hopkins, Grant A.
Scott, Nicholas
Cahill, Patrick
author_sort Hopkins, Grant A.
collection PubMed
description There is a lack of cost-effective, environmentally-friendly tools available to manage marine biofouling accumulation on static artificial structures such as drilling rigs, wind turbines, marine farms, and port and marina infrastructure. For there to be uptake and refinement of tools, emerging technologies need to be tested and proven at an operational scale. This study aimed to see whether biofouling accumulation could be suppressed on marine infrastructure under real-world conditions through the delivery of continuous bubble streams. Submerged surfaces of a floating marina pontoon were cleaned in-situ by divers, and the subsequent colonisation by biofouling organisms was monitored on treated (bubbles applied) and untreated sections. Continuous bubble streams proved highly effective (>95%) in controlling macrofouling accumulation on the underside surface of the marina pontoon for the first 2 months after deployment, but efficacy dropped off rapidly once bubble stream delivery was partially obscured due to biofouling accumulation on the diffuser itself. Although extensive macrofouling cover by mussels, bryozoans and hydroids was observed on treated surfaces by 4 months (27.5%, SE = 4.8%), biofouling % cover and diversity was significantly higher on untreated surfaces (79.6%, SE = 2.9%). While this study demonstrates that continuous bubble streams greatly restrict biofouling accumulation over short-to-medium timescales, improved system design, especially the incorporation of diffusers resistant to fouling, is needed for the approach to be considered a viable long-term option for biofouling management on static artificial structures.
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spelling pubmed-104930922023-09-11 Application of bubble streams to control biofouling on marine infrastructure—pontoon-scale implementation Hopkins, Grant A. Scott, Nicholas Cahill, Patrick PeerJ Marine Biology There is a lack of cost-effective, environmentally-friendly tools available to manage marine biofouling accumulation on static artificial structures such as drilling rigs, wind turbines, marine farms, and port and marina infrastructure. For there to be uptake and refinement of tools, emerging technologies need to be tested and proven at an operational scale. This study aimed to see whether biofouling accumulation could be suppressed on marine infrastructure under real-world conditions through the delivery of continuous bubble streams. Submerged surfaces of a floating marina pontoon were cleaned in-situ by divers, and the subsequent colonisation by biofouling organisms was monitored on treated (bubbles applied) and untreated sections. Continuous bubble streams proved highly effective (>95%) in controlling macrofouling accumulation on the underside surface of the marina pontoon for the first 2 months after deployment, but efficacy dropped off rapidly once bubble stream delivery was partially obscured due to biofouling accumulation on the diffuser itself. Although extensive macrofouling cover by mussels, bryozoans and hydroids was observed on treated surfaces by 4 months (27.5%, SE = 4.8%), biofouling % cover and diversity was significantly higher on untreated surfaces (79.6%, SE = 2.9%). While this study demonstrates that continuous bubble streams greatly restrict biofouling accumulation over short-to-medium timescales, improved system design, especially the incorporation of diffusers resistant to fouling, is needed for the approach to be considered a viable long-term option for biofouling management on static artificial structures. PeerJ Inc. 2023-09-07 /pmc/articles/PMC10493092/ /pubmed/37701841 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.16004 Text en © 2023 Hopkins et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Marine Biology
Hopkins, Grant A.
Scott, Nicholas
Cahill, Patrick
Application of bubble streams to control biofouling on marine infrastructure—pontoon-scale implementation
title Application of bubble streams to control biofouling on marine infrastructure—pontoon-scale implementation
title_full Application of bubble streams to control biofouling on marine infrastructure—pontoon-scale implementation
title_fullStr Application of bubble streams to control biofouling on marine infrastructure—pontoon-scale implementation
title_full_unstemmed Application of bubble streams to control biofouling on marine infrastructure—pontoon-scale implementation
title_short Application of bubble streams to control biofouling on marine infrastructure—pontoon-scale implementation
title_sort application of bubble streams to control biofouling on marine infrastructure—pontoon-scale implementation
topic Marine Biology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10493092/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37701841
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.16004
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