| Marine organism fouling of surfaces has significant impact on our environment and the economy. Increased fuel use due to drag costs approximately ;Our approach is to investigate the interaction between the wettability of surfaces with the response of fouling organisms. One of the ways the wettability can be influenced is through the use of topography. Since the topographies have directionality, the direction dependence of the wettability was determined on several microscale topographies that have previously shown antifouling potential. Breaking microscale ridges into the discontinuous features in the antifouling topographies reduced the anisotropies in the contact angles, but did not eliminate anisotropy.;The number of distinct features in the design and the area fraction of the topographic features were found to influence settlement of the fouling alga Ulva linza. A biosettlement model, refined from previous work, predicts the settlement of Ulva linza to three previously untested surfaces. These surfaces significantly reduced the settlement of these spores in vitro by up to 78%. The attachment of another species of fouler, the diatom Navicula perminuta, was reduced by approximately 35% on several surfaces that reduced Ulva linza settlement. The Navicula cells responded differently to the topographies than the Ulva linza spores.;A mapping technique was developed to determine the two-dimensional settlement pattern of cells on the topographical surfaces. This technique revealed and quantified several preferential locations for Ulva linza settlement on engineered topographies. The characteristics of these locations can be further investigated to elucidate the driving factors for the interaction of these cells. Other applications, such as the medical devices and tissue scaffolds, could benefit from investigating the localized interactions between various cells and surface patterns. |
