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Abstract
Laminar bryozoans of shallow marine sites from cool-temperate to subtropical climate in Japan and New Zealand tolerated mainly agglutinated biofilms composed of diatoms, fungi, cyanobacteria and other bacteria as well as debris trapped in slimes. Also monobacterial films were relatively frequent on living bryozoans, while rigid, tangled mats of filamentous cyanobacteria mainly occupied surrounding substrates or dead bryozoan colonies. Three levels of microbial fouling low, medium and high were defined. Low-level fouling was more frequent on bryozoan colonies collected at warm-water settings, while medium levels became more frequent in cooler water. The decrease of microbial fouling towards lower latitudes parallels findings in part one of this study (Kaselowsky et al. 2004, this volume) in which bryozoan lamina types comparatively strong in overgrowth competition increased towards lower latitudes. Such morphological signals of competitive interaction of bryozoans and associated epizoic biofilms are potentially of paleoecologic value. Our collections from two different sampling periods revealed only small changes between seasons which may account for the predominance of oceanographic factors controlling shallow marine sampling sites around Japan and New Zealand coasts.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]