DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2017.v05i02.001

Pages: 95-98

Marine fouling is an undesirable deposition of abiotic and biotic materials on manmade engineering structures in the marine environment especially contact with sea water. All forms of fouling are detrimental to the marine structures. After molecular fouling habitually the biofouling starts with microfoulers such as bacteria, micro algae, etc., then macro foulers such as algae, plants, mollusk, barnacles, etc will be followed. This study reports the diversity of diatoms involving in the fouling processes in the Vellar estuary of Parangipettai, south east coast of Indian subcontinent using different test panels. Seven species of diatoms such as Skeletonema costatum, Triceratium reticulatum, Rhizosolenia setigera, Pleurosigma elongatum, Nitzschia longissima, Thalassione manitzschioides, and Thalassiothrix frauenfeldii were recorded during this study.