MT3.1 Artificial shorelines

Biome: MT3. Anthropogenic shorelines biome

Contributors:
(texts)

Constructed sea walls, breakwaters, piers, docks, tidal canals, islands and other coastal infrastructure create habitat for marine plants and animals around ports, harbours, and other intensively settled coastal areas. The waters may be polluted by urban runoff or industrial outflows. Opportunities for introduction of invasive species e.g. through shipping mean that non-native species are common. Foodwebs are simple and dominated by species able to opportunistically colonise these structures through dispersal of eggs, larvae and spores. Commonly, these include algae and bacteria, and filter-feeders like sea-squirts and barnacles.

Key Features

Coastal infrastructure, such as seawalls, breakwaters, pilings and piers, extending from the intertidal to subtidal, supporting cosmopolitan sessile and mobile invertebrates and macroalgae on their hard surfaces, and in some instances serving as artificial reefs for fish.

Overview of distribution

Globally, along urbanised coastlines.

Profile versions

• v1.0 (2020-01-20): RT Kingsford; DA Keith
• v2.0 (2020-06-17): IM Suthers; MJ Bishop; LB Firth; KA Dafforn. DA Keith
• v2.01 ():
• v2.1 (2022-04-06): IM Suthers; MJ Bishop; LB Firth; KA Dafforn. DA Keith Full profile available at official site

Main references

Selected references for this functional group:

• Dafforn KA, Glasby TM, Airoldi L, Rivero NK, Mayer-Pinto M, Johnston EL (2015) Marine urbanization: an ecological framework for designing multifunctional artificial structures. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 13: 82-90. DOI:10.1890/140050

Diagrammatic assembly model

Diagrammatic assembly model of MT3.1 Artificial shorelines. See general notes on diagrams. Open image full size.

Maps

Maps are indicative of global distribution patterns are not intended to represent fine-scale patterns. The maps show areas of the world containing major (coloured red) or minor occurrences (coloured yellow) of each ecosystem functional group. See general notes on maps.

There are 2 alternative versions of the indicative map for this functional group, please compare description and sources below.

MT3.1.IM.grid_v2.0

Datasets

• MEOW-2008
• SRTM30-PLUS-V11
• VIIRS-Night-Lights

Map references

• Spalding MD, Fox HE, Allen GR, Davidson N, Ferdaña ZA, Finlayson M, Halpern BS, Jorge MA, Lombana A, Lourie SA, Martin KD, McManus E, Molnar J, Recchia CA, Robertson J (2007) Marine ecoregions of the world: a bioregionalization of coastal and shelf areas. Bioscience 57: 573–583. DOI:10.1641/B570707

• Becker JJ, Sandwell DT, Smith WHF, Braud J, Binder B, Depner J, Fabre D, Factor J, Ingalls S, Kim S-H, Ladner R, Marks K, Nelson S, Pharaoh A, Trimmer R, Von Rosenberg J, Wallace G, Weatherall P (2009) Global Bathymetry and Elevation Data at 30 Arc Seconds Resolution: SRTM30_PLUS, Marine Geodesy 32: 355-371. DOI:10.1080/01490410903297766

• VIIRS Day/Night Band Nighttime Lights, Version 1; Earth Observation Group, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Data-set

MT3.1.web.map_v1.0

Marine ecoregions (Spalding et al. 2008) containing major and minor occurrences of urbanized shorelines were identified from the map of night lights (see T7.4), imagery available on Google Earth and expertise of authors. Occurrences were aggregated to 1 degree spatial resolution and intersected with the coastline to exclude areas inland and in the open ocean. Open image full size.

Datasets

• MEOW-2008

Map references

• Spalding MD, Fox HE, Allen GR, Davidson N, Ferdaña ZA, Finlayson M, Halpern BS, Jorge MA, Lombana A, Lourie SA, Martin KD, McManus E, Molnar J, Recchia CA, Robertson J (2007) Marine ecoregions of the world: a bioregionalization of coastal and shelf areas. Bioscience 57: 573–583. DOI:10.1641/B570707

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