Sea turtle epibiosis

Abstract

In the marine environment, any exposed, undefended surface will eventually be colonized by marine propagules (Wahl, 1989). Colonization of inanimate structures (e.g., dock pilings and boat hulls) is called fouling, while colonization of other marine organisms is called epibiosis. Epibiosis results in spatially close associations between two or more living organisms (Harder, 2009), in which a single host (or basibiont) supports one or more typically opportunistic colonizers (or epibionts) (Wahl and Mark, 1999). Epibiosis is the most common form of symbiosis in the marine environment and may be classified into several types of associations (e.g., mutualism, commensalism, parasitism) depending on the interactions between a host and its epibionts (Leung and Poulin, 2008).