Seasonal variation in species composition of recently settled fouling communities along an environmental gradient in the Indian River Lagoon, Florida

Abstract

Monthly settlement of fouling organisms was monitored for one year along a gradient within the Indian River Lagoon from the Ft. Pierce Inlet, with relatively stable temperature and salinity regimes, to a point 16 km north of the Inlet where temperatures and salinities were more variable. More species of fouling organisms were found near the Inlet than at stations further away from the Inlet. More apparently stenotopic colonial species tended to dominate the fouling community near the Inlet, whereas further from the Inlet, dominant species were generally apparently eurytopic solitary forms.