wrecks - Artificial coral reefs and ecosystems
本文同时提供以下语言的翻译:中文
Preamble
When a ship completes its service, it finally sinks to the bottom.
It completed its initial value, but then went to rest in the water with a new story - the passage of time brought waves of coral and other plants, which in turn attracted fish and predators
A budding ecosystem was born.
Artificial Reefs
Thousands of years ago, people in temperate coastal areas have been known to use bamboo or wooden structures to attract gathering schools of fish (FADs). Of course, this structure was not designed to protect Marine biodiversity, but it is an inspiration for ecosystem restoration.
As a coral restoration scholar, Charles Darwin observed that by attaching detached corals to the aforementioned FADs, the corals could successfully survive and grow.
Although this structure is not a very effective artificial reef, this example shows that artificial reefs can provide a good environment for corals to grow.
Effects of wrecks as artificial coral reefs
In the 1970s and 1980s, people began sinking objects into the ocean floor to act as artificial reefs. This includes concrete blocks and boats of all sizes.
Artificial reefs have a material requirement: they must be strong enough to withstand possible hurricanes and currents.
Artificial reefs also need to be made of iron or concrete to prevent toxins from contaminating water sources. Boats, it seems, are the perfect substrate for an artificial reef.
Many artificial reef projects are sinking abandoned vessels that provide habitats for corals and other plants and animals on the seabed, allowing otherwise hard bottoms to flourish.
The retired Coast Guard cutter Duane sank off Florida in 1987
Shipwrecks seem to be beneficial to the undersea ecosystem rather than harmful. In fact, there are many factors that make shipwrecks unhelpful or even counterproductive to the local ecosystem:
Artificial reefs require the same environmental water quality as natural reefs, which means they can only be formed quickly on the seabed with good water quality.
On the other hand, such as accidental sinking of ships, there is often the problem of oil spills to pollute the water and pollute the local waters. Such pollution often takes decades to recover.
In fact, 70 percent of shipwrecks date back to World War II, and several studies have suggested that over the years, the rust on ships can contaminate the environment with acid. The impact of these wrecks on the ecology of the seafloor is questionable, of course, because corals and other plants still inhabit them.
And the analysis of carbon and nitrogen isotopes showed that the artificial reefs did indeed increase local secondary biomass production: that is, they did not just harbor fish and other heterotrophic organisms, but actually increased heterotrophic populations.
Issues remained
Since the increase in attention to natural ecology in the late 20th century, many people have realized the value of artificial coral reefs. As mentioned above, people began to sink objects at the bottom of the sea.
So in the name of artificial reefs, companies are dumping lots of waste on the sea floor at low cost: bits of building material or tyres. These materials are either too smooth for corals to live in, too small to be blown away by hurricanes, or continue to release toxic substances.
Take Florida’s Osborne Reef in the 1970s: tens of thousands of tires do nothing to support coral, instead covering large areas of the seabed.
As a measure to restore coral populations, maintain species diversity and protect their research value, artificial coral reefs still face many challenges. All kinds of bold hypotheses and experiments are the ladder to achievement, but the use and greed of this excuse will bring indelible damage to the environment.
Citations:
[1]Cresson, Pierre, et al. “Artificial Reefs Do Increase Secondary Biomass Production: Mechanisms Evidenced by Stable Isotopes.” Marine Ecology Progress Series, vol. 509, 2014, pp. 15–26. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24894662. Accessed 24 Jun. 2022.
[2]Assembly, P. (2012). The environmental impact of sunken shipwrecks. PACE website. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from https://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=18077&lang=en
[3]New Heaven Conservation Program. (n.d.). Artificial Reefs: What works and what doesn’t [web log]. Retrieved June 4, 2022.
wrecks - Artificial coral reefs and ecosystems
