Biofouling in the deep

A few weeks ago, I received an invitation to make a virtual presentation at the Marine Research and Education conference (MARESEDU) in Moscow. Usually, the conference is in person, but this year, the organizers adopted a hybrid model as a result of the pandemic. I was asked to participate in an international virtual session about biofouling in the deep sea.

If you have a chance, I encourage you to check out the recording when it appears on the MARESEDU website, because the session was extremely educational. I presented results from the long-term recruitment study I did with German collaborators in the Arctic deep sea and showed preliminary results from CATAIN. My presentation generated good questions, which I was proud of, but for me, the best part of the session was listening to the other speakers. Two of them addressed fouling by microorganisms and bacteria on deep-sea substrata; another spoke about the role that biofouling on oil rigs plays in spreading invasive species across the world. In a surprising twist, one presenter showed her research on the effects of electromagnetic radiation on biofouling. I was fascinated by all of them.

There was a strong consensus that much remains to be discovered about how substrata are colonized in the deep sea, and a pressing need for more studies as the number of anthropogenic installations increase. I am very glad to be connected with similar-minded colleagues and to have learned about their ongoing research through MARESEDU!