Biofouling protection for marine environmental sensors

TLDR

Marine autonomous monitoring networks deploy sensors on platforms and buoys, but biofouling can degrade measurements within days, threatening long‑term data quality. This review aims to evaluate biofouling protection methods for in‑situ marine sensors. The authors surveyed existing biofouling mitigation strategies and compiled a concise catalogue of promising approaches. Only a handful of methods have been deployed and validated in the field for durations of one to two months. Abstract.

Abstract

Abstract. These days, many marine autonomous environment monitoring networks are set up in the world. These systems take advantage of existing superstructures such as offshore platforms, lightships, piers, breakwaters or are placed on specially designed buoys or underwater oceanographic structures. These systems commonly use various sensors to measure parameters such as dissolved oxygen, turbidity, conductivity, pH or fluorescence. Emphasis has to be put on the long term quality of measurements, yet sensors may face very short-term biofouling effects. Biofouling can disrupt the quality of the measurements, sometimes in less than a week. Many techniques to prevent biofouling on instrumentation are listed and studied by researchers and manufacturers. Very few of them are implemented on instruments and of those very few have been tested in situ on oceanographic sensors for deployment of at least one or two months. This paper presents a review of techniques used to protect against biofouling of in situ sensors and gives a short list and description of promising techniques.