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Composition, Distribution, And Dynamics Of Intertidal Epibiota On Coastal Defense Structures, Donna Marie Bilkovic, Molly Mitchell

Reports

Proliferation of artificial structures to protect shorelines has introduced novel habitat to most coastal environments and fragmented natural habitats. These changes can result in disrupted connectivity, habitat homogenization, and altered estuarine landscapes, with uncertain implications for estuarine and marine faunal community structure and function. In estuaries, such as Chesapeake Bay, where soft-bottom habitat dominates and rocky shorelines are rare, the introduction of artificial rocky structure may enhance recruitment of species that are limited by the availability of suitable substrate including native and introduced species (Bilkovic & Mitchell 2013). There is a significant lack of empirical data on the types of …