| dc.description.abstract | Infrastructure designed to protect coastal environments, such as seawalls, can have adverse
effects on the area they are supposed to protect. Hard shore armouring can be expensive, disrupt
hydrodynamic processes, eventually rebuilding, and impact the surrounding marine environment.
Artificial reef structures built with mineral accretion technology (MAT) grow stronger over time
and improve corals' and other reef-forming organisms such as blue mussels, growth, and
survival. MAT reef structures develop through the seawater electrolysis reaction. By adding a
current to a sacrificial anode, an electrical field envelops a cathode (the steel artificial reef
structure), causing dissolved minerals to accrete. Seeding MAT installations with shellfish such
as blue mussels add ecosystem services such as improved water quality through filtration and
complex habitat creation to the reef structure. A literature review was conducted to determine the
feasibility of a proposed MAT installation in St. Margaret's Bay, Nova Scotia, an atypical coldwater
region with low dissolved carbonate mineral levels, to benefit blue mussel habitat
construction. The ability to grow engineered living breakwaters with little electrical input and
locally accessible materials presents a sustainable, cost-effective solution for coastal
communities that require shoreline protection and marine habitat reconstruction.
Keywords: Biorock™, Blue Mussel, Reef, Living Shoreline, Shoreline Protection, Marine
Habitat Reconstruction, Mineral Accretion Technology, Engineered Living Breakwater | en_US |
