Jump to main content or area navigation.

Contact Us

ReefLink Database

Artificial Habitat

Artificial Habitat

Artificial habitat includes structures such as oil rigs, debris, sunken ships, and even abandoned bombs that can provide substrate for coral and sponges, or habitat for fish and invertebrates, potentially creating an artificial coral reef ecosystem.

CMap

Artificial habitat includes structures such as oil rigs, debris, sunken ships, and even abandoned bombs that can provide substrate for coral and sponges, or habitat for fish and invertebrates, potentially creating an artificial coral reef ecosystem. Biological Addition refers to anthropogenic inputs of a biological nature into the reef ecosystem, including artificial habitat, domestic animal waste, supplemental feeding, and escape or release of non-native species. Civil Engineering and Construction specializes in the design and construction of infrastructure, including buildings and homes, roads, utility lines, and ports. The Coastal Engineering sector is responsible for the design, construction, and maintenance of engineering projects along the coast, including ports, harbors, docks, and marinas needed by boats, ships, and other water transportation, as well as to facilitate recreational activities (such as fishing and diving). Complex habitat and resources reflects the complex architecture of sessile, plant-like organisms, such as octocoral and sponges, which provides shelter and protection for small fish and other invertebrates from predators. Construction codes and regulations control the location, number, and development of construction projects, including buildings, homes, and coastal structures. Dredging regulations are decisions or policies to control the location or intensity of physically damaging activities such as dredging, draining, or filling. Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems . Energy policy & development includes policies and regulations adopted to control the production, distribution, and consumption of energy. Environmental monitoring describes the processes and activities that need to take place to characterize and monitor the quality of the physical and chemical environment. The Food and Raw Materials sector includes groups that harvest natural resources from the earth, including agriculture, aquaculture, fishing, forestry, mining, and the oil and gas industry. Infrastructural sectors provide the physical, organizational, and technical support for the economy to function, including construction, utilities, transportation, finance, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and technical services. The Military is authorized by the government to use force in order to defend its country, and includes the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, as well as organizations involved in the manufacturing and supply of military equipment. The Oil and Gas Industry specializes in the finding of natural resources such as crude petroleum and natural gas, and the creation, maintenance, and operation of wells to extract the oil and gas from the earth and prepare it for sale. Oil and Gas Rigs are the apparatus used to support drilling for natural oil and gas (both on land and off-shore). The Reef Ecosystem includes a suite of abiotic variables that form the physical and chemical environment. Pipelines are constructed and used to transport oil and gas from source wells to market. Pressures are human activities that create stress on the environment. The state of the Reef Ecosystem is the condition, in terms of quantity and quality, of the abiotic and biotic components including physical, chemical, and biological variables. Reef Habitat is the abundance, distribution, and condition of the benthic components of the reef ecosystem. Reef Inhabitants are all of the motile components of the reef ecosystem, including fish, invertebrates, marine reptiles and mammals, and are quantified by their abundance, distribution, and condition. Reef Life is the abundance, distribution, and condition of the biological components of the coral reef ecosystem. Regulating Services are benefits obtained from ecosystem processes that regulate the environment, including erosion regulation, natural hazard regulation, and climate regulation. Resource use management pertains to responses to regulate or limit contact activities that may directly impact coastal species through harvesting or physical damage. Responses are actions taken by groups or individuals in society and government to prevent, compensate, ameliorate or adapt to changes in Ecosystem Services or their perceived value. The Security Sector provides security to the country and its people effectively and under democratic principles. Security and public administration policies are responses to improve the decision-making and enforcement abilities of governmental institutions. Shoreline Protection is the attenuation of wave energy by reefs that protects coastal communities against shoreline erosion and flooding during storms, hurricanes, and tsunamis that can cause property damage and loss of life. Socio-Economic Drivers include the sectors that fulfill human needs for Food & Raw Materials, Water, Shelter, Health, Culture, and Security, and the Infrastructure that supports the sectors. Special use permitting is a documentation mechanism to allow activities that might otherwise be prohibited (e.g,, collection of species for scientific research in a protected area). Substrate is the surface upon which an organism grows or is attached, and may include sand, hardbottom, rock, or even other biota. Supporting services are ecological processes that indirectly benefit humans by maintaining a functional ecosystem for the production of other ecosystem goods and services.

CMap Description

The activities of socio-economic drivers can create biological additions into the reef ecosystem. Abandoned mines from military operations, and coastal engineering structures, such as ports, docks, pipelines, oil rigs, can create artificial habitat on which invertebrates can colonize and provide structural habitat and resources that attracts fish. Many of the same socio-economic sectors that create artificial habitat benefit indirectly from goods and services provided by the reef that provides recreational opportunities and contributes to the cultural identity of the local community and drives coastal development. Construction codes and energy management policies can be implemented to modify the locations and size of coastal structures. Remediation can be implemented to remove artificial structures.

Jump to main content.