Ecological engineering to improve coastal biodiversity and resilience Outcome • Recommendations for augmenting walls of tidal lagoons to facilitate biodiversity. • Reveal the extent to which vegetation aids resilience in sand dunes, which is, counter to common assumptions, poorly understood. • Shed light on the most important properties of this vegetation (species identity, density, diversity) • Inform best practice in augmenting or creating sand dunes in the region. John Griffin, Dominic Reeve, Iain Fairley, Anouska Mendzil, Chiara Bertelli, Ruth Callaway SEACAMS2 and Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Research Department of Biosciences, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK Rationale Rising sea level and increasing storminess threaten biodiversity and resilience (i.e., the ability to persist and continue to provide ecosystem services in the face of environmental change) of coastal ecosystems including sand dunes, salt marshes, and rocky shores. Construction of renewable energy structures (e.g., tidal lagoons) in coastal areas presents both issues and opportunities for biodiversity and ecosystem resilience. Key issues are that such structures may: • modify water and sediment movement to increase erosion of sensitive sand dunes and marshes; and • create simplified hard substrates with low biodiversity. Key opportunities are: • modification of homogeneous rock structures to create complex substrates that can facilitate biodiverse, highly functional, ecological communities on the walls of structures • management of sediment and vegetation in sand dunes and salt marshes can create new habitats and increase resilience of existing habitats. contact John Griffin Email [email protected] Tel ext. - 5311 Poster produced March 2017 This project is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government.
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Ecological engineering to improve coastal biodiversity and resilience
Outcome• Recommendations for augmenting walls of tidal
lagoons to facilitate biodiversity.
• Reveal the extent to which vegetation aids resilience
in sand dunes, which is, counter to common
assumptions, poorly understood.
• Shed light on the most important properties of this
vegetation (species identity, density, diversity)
• Inform best practice in augmenting or creating sand
dunes in the region.
John Griffin, Dominic Reeve, Iain Fairley, Anouska Mendzil, Chiara Bertelli, Ruth Callaway
SEACAMS2 and Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Research Department of Biosciences, Swansea University, Singleton
Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK
Rationale
Rising sea level and increasing storminess threaten
biodiversity and resilience (i.e., the ability to persist and
continue to provide ecosystem services in the face of
environmental change) of coastal ecosystems including
sand dunes, salt marshes, and rocky shores. Construction of
renewable energy structures (e.g., tidal lagoons) in coastal
areas presents both issues and opportunities for
biodiversity and ecosystem resilience.
Key issues are that such structures may:
• modify water and sediment movement to increase
erosion of sensitive sand dunes and marshes; and
• create simplified hard substrates with low biodiversity.
Key opportunities are:
• modification of homogeneous rock structures to create
complex substrates that can facilitate biodiverse, highly
functional, ecological communities on the walls of
structures
• management of sediment and vegetation in sand dunes
and salt marshes can create new habitats and increase
resilience of existing habitats.
contact John Griffin
Email [email protected]
Tel ext. - 5311
Poster produced March 2017This project is part-funded by the European
Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government.
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