I-Corps: Constructing an Artificial Reef to Improve the Marine Ecosystem

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Artificial reefs serve a useful purpose to promote the growth of sessile marine organisms such as bacteria, algae, corals, and bryozoans as well as providing a habitat and food source for species such as fish, crabs, lobsters, and some marine invertebrates. This project applies the EPA's 12 Principles of Green Technology to a cellulose based surface that is coated in nutrients to promote the rapid growth of marine microbes, the base of the marine food chain. This rapid growth, which begins days after being submerged, starts the food chain. The mineral based substrate attached to the cellulose based material is denser than water to allow the entire structure to sink; both the cellulose and mineral based materials will degrade leaving behind nucleation sites for microbes, corals, invertebrate collections, and more. The reef is constructed entirely from biodegradable materials and production costs are economical. The proposed approach combines cellulose with silicates and nutrients (CeNS) to provide a surface for marine life to nucleate and grow. This approach was developed in the PI's lab over the past decade raising marine bacteria that produced marine natural products. The team intends to build on the preliminary results involving carbonate based organisms (i.e. oysters, coral), a place for larvae to grow (i.e. fish, shrimp and octopus), and to provide a food source and shelter for schools of fish. This team has started testing its green technology approach in the Florida panhandle and the Florida Keys. While the use of wood as a growth and shelter medium for marine life has been practiced since ancient times, the use of a nutrient mix with cellulose to selectively encourage and accelerate certain species is unique.