Future Biofouling and Anti-Biofouling Strategies

生物污染被描述为海洋生物在水下结构上不必要的积累，并具有严重的经济和环境后果。例如，船体上的生物污垢增加了流体动力阻力，导致燃料消耗和温室气体排放增加。生物污染过程是一个复杂的动态过程，受到一系列生物和非生物因素的影响。其中一个因素是海洋温度，到2050年，海洋温度将上升1摄氏度，到本世纪末，海洋温度将上升2摄氏度。这将导致全球生物污染界的深刻变化，这几乎肯定会对防污策略的性能产生连锁反应。考虑到这一点，这个项目旨在了解海洋变暖对温带水域生物污染群落的影响，反过来，这将如何影响我们未来控制生物污染的能力。最初，该项目将专注于微生物生物膜和生物膜代谢物，然后将这些知识与最终的大污染群落相结合。这将提高我们预测未来生物污染变化的能力，并为下一代抗生物污染策略奠定基础。

Biofouling is described as the unwanted accumulation of marine organisms on submerged structures and has serious economic and environmental consequences. For example, the presence of biofouling on the hull of a ship increases hydrodynamic drag and results in increased fuel consumption and emission of greenhouse gasses. The biofouling process is complex and dynamic, being impacted by a range of biotic and abiotic factors. One such factor is ocean temperature, which is on course to increase by 1 degree C by 2050, and 2 degrees C by the end of the century. This will result in profound changes in the global biofouling community which will almost certainly have knock on effects to the performance of anti-fouling strategies.With this in mind, this project aims to understand the effect of ocean warming on biofouling communities in temperate waters, and in turn, how this will influence our ability to control biofouling in the future. Initially, the project will focus on microbial biofilms and biofilm metabolites, before pairing this knowledge to the final macrofouling community. This will improve our ability to predict future shifts in biofouling and underpin next generation anti-biofouling strategies.