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Interstitial Space and Trapped Sediment Drive Benthic Communities in Artificial Shell and Rock Reefs

Ruth Callaway

Frontiers in Marine Science, Volume: 5

Swansea University Author: Ruth Callaway

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DOI (Published version): 10.3389/fmars.2018.00288

Abstract

Enhancing habitat complexity and thereby biodiversity is a main motivation for the creation of artificial reefs in the marine and coastal environment. Uncertainty remains, however, regarding which types of reef best deliver this aim, and how material properties impact faunal communities. The objecti...

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Published in: Frontiers in Marine Science
ISSN: 2296-7745
Published: 2018
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa43513
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first_indexed 2018-08-18T13:48:53Z
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spelling 2018-09-06T12:09:33.9090968 v2 43513 2018-08-18 Interstitial Space and Trapped Sediment Drive Benthic Communities in Artificial Shell and Rock Reefs 61d7fe28cbb286de1c9c43f45014c490 Ruth Callaway Ruth Callaway true false 2018-08-18 FGSEN Enhancing habitat complexity and thereby biodiversity is a main motivation for the creation of artificial reefs in the marine and coastal environment. Uncertainty remains, however, regarding which types of reef best deliver this aim, and how material properties impact faunal communities. The objective of this study was to assess the macrobenthic infauna in standardized reef-units made from different types of shell and rock and to quantify factors explaining community properties. 70 × 75 × 25 cm reef-units were made from cockle, mussel and oyster shells and rocks. Replicate units were placed on an intertidal sand flat of Swansea Bay (Wales, UK). After 5 months the benthic fauna was washed out of the reef-units and identified to species level. The volume of reef material, interstitial space and trapped sediment in each unit was quantified. A total of 45 invertebrate species were recorded in artificial reef-units compared with 12 species in the reef-free surrounding sands; 37 species were exclusively found in reefs. There was no significant difference between the infauna communities in different reef types in terms of univariate or multivariate diversity descriptors, but multivariate dispersion was lower among rock than shell-reef replicates. Distance-based linear models (DistLM) showed that the volume of interstitial space per reef-unit was the factor best explaining community structure, followed by properties of the trapped sediment. Species richness was significantly correlated with the volume of interstitial space and trapped sediment. Species seemed to use the reef-units fleetingly as shelter during low water, more permanently for protection, or as hunting ground for prey. The study demonstrated that artificial reef-units made of loose shell material and rocks can significantly enhance infauna diversity in sandy coastal environments. The identity of the material seems less relevant as long as it maximizes interstitial space and allows trapping of sediment. This provides practitioners with a degree of creative freedom when designing artificial reefs with the aim to enhance infauna diversity. Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science 5 2296-7745 benthos, biodiversity, biogenic reef, cockle, infauna, mussel, oyster 17 8 2018 2018-08-17 10.3389/fmars.2018.00288 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2018.00288/full COLLEGE NANME Science and Engineering - Faculty COLLEGE CODE FGSEN Swansea University 2018-09-06T12:09:33.9090968 2018-08-18T07:29:39.9189484 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences Ruth Callaway 1 0043513-06092018120812.pdf 43513.pdf 2018-09-06T12:08:12.0000000 Output 1569257 application/pdf Version of Record true 2018-09-05T00:00:00.0000000 Released under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). true eng
title Interstitial Space and Trapped Sediment Drive Benthic Communities in Artificial Shell and Rock Reefs
spellingShingle Interstitial Space and Trapped Sediment Drive Benthic Communities in Artificial Shell and Rock Reefs
Ruth Callaway
title_short Interstitial Space and Trapped Sediment Drive Benthic Communities in Artificial Shell and Rock Reefs
title_full Interstitial Space and Trapped Sediment Drive Benthic Communities in Artificial Shell and Rock Reefs
title_fullStr Interstitial Space and Trapped Sediment Drive Benthic Communities in Artificial Shell and Rock Reefs
title_full_unstemmed Interstitial Space and Trapped Sediment Drive Benthic Communities in Artificial Shell and Rock Reefs
title_sort Interstitial Space and Trapped Sediment Drive Benthic Communities in Artificial Shell and Rock Reefs
author_id_str_mv 61d7fe28cbb286de1c9c43f45014c490
author_id_fullname_str_mv 61d7fe28cbb286de1c9c43f45014c490_***_Ruth Callaway
author Ruth Callaway
author2 Ruth Callaway
format Journal article
container_title Frontiers in Marine Science
container_volume 5
publishDate 2018
institution Swansea University
issn 2296-7745
doi_str_mv 10.3389/fmars.2018.00288
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2018.00288/full
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description Enhancing habitat complexity and thereby biodiversity is a main motivation for the creation of artificial reefs in the marine and coastal environment. Uncertainty remains, however, regarding which types of reef best deliver this aim, and how material properties impact faunal communities. The objective of this study was to assess the macrobenthic infauna in standardized reef-units made from different types of shell and rock and to quantify factors explaining community properties. 70 × 75 × 25 cm reef-units were made from cockle, mussel and oyster shells and rocks. Replicate units were placed on an intertidal sand flat of Swansea Bay (Wales, UK). After 5 months the benthic fauna was washed out of the reef-units and identified to species level. The volume of reef material, interstitial space and trapped sediment in each unit was quantified. A total of 45 invertebrate species were recorded in artificial reef-units compared with 12 species in the reef-free surrounding sands; 37 species were exclusively found in reefs. There was no significant difference between the infauna communities in different reef types in terms of univariate or multivariate diversity descriptors, but multivariate dispersion was lower among rock than shell-reef replicates. Distance-based linear models (DistLM) showed that the volume of interstitial space per reef-unit was the factor best explaining community structure, followed by properties of the trapped sediment. Species richness was significantly correlated with the volume of interstitial space and trapped sediment. Species seemed to use the reef-units fleetingly as shelter during low water, more permanently for protection, or as hunting ground for prey. The study demonstrated that artificial reef-units made of loose shell material and rocks can significantly enhance infauna diversity in sandy coastal environments. The identity of the material seems less relevant as long as it maximizes interstitial space and allows trapping of sediment. This provides practitioners with a degree of creative freedom when designing artificial reefs with the aim to enhance infauna diversity.
published_date 2018-08-17T03:54:43Z
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