Marine growth colonization process in Guieau Gulf: data analysis

Abstract

Colonization process of marine growth increasingly arouses the interest of the oil industry because engineering design or reassessment of platforms requires forecasting of biological fouling specific to the area where they are located. Numerous publications related to marine growth on installations of North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, or oil sites in other parts of the world tried to answer the need to supply more quantitative data on biological fouling. Unfortunately, there is a lack of qualitative and quantitative published data in the Gulf of Guinea, where biological fouling has a significant impact on cost of structural inspection and maintenance because of the importance of colonization due to favorable environmental parameters (warmer temperature of seawater, intense action of the waves generating a mixing of the nutritive elements, strong light, etc.). This paper is dedicated to bridge that gap and describe ecosystem dynamics of marine growth in the Gulf of Guinea. We describe patterns of development for dominant types of biofouling in the region. Analyses of evolution and related kinetics parameters are carried out to give main trends of colonization process. Predictive models of marine growth development and their statistical parameters are proposed for reassessment and engineering design.