Aguilera Moisés A, Broitman Bernardo R, Thiel Martin
Departamento de Biología Marina, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, Universidad Católica del Norte, Larrondo, 1281, Coquimbo, Chile; Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas (CEAZA), Ossandón 877, Coquimbo, Chile.
Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas (CEAZA), Ossandón 877, Coquimbo, Chile.
Environ Pollut. 2016 Jul;214:737-747. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2016.04.058. Epub 2016 May 3.
Coastal urban infrastructures are proliferating across the world, but knowledge about their emergent impacts is still limited. Here, we provide evidence that urban artificial reefs have a high potential to accumulate the diverse forms of litter originating from anthropogenic activities around cities. We test the hypothesis that the structural complexity of urban breakwaters, when compared with adjacent natural rocky intertidal habitats, is a driver of anthropogenic litter accumulation. We determined litter abundances at seven sites (cities) and estimated the structural complexity in both urban breakwaters and adjacent natural habitats from northern to central Chile, spanning a latitudinal gradient of ∼15° (18°S to 33°S). Anthropogenic litter density was significantly higher in coastal breakwaters when compared to natural habitats (∼15.1 items m(-2) on artificial reefs versus 7.4 items m(-2) in natural habitats) at all study sites, a pattern that was temporally persistent. Different litter categories were more abundant on the artificial reefs than in natural habitats, with local human population density and breakwater extension contributing to increase the probabilities of litter occurrence by ∼10%. In addition, structural complexity was about two-fold higher on artificial reefs, with anthropogenic litter density being highest at intermediate levels of structural complexity. Therefore, the spatial structure characteristic of artificial reefs seems to enhance anthropogenic litter accumulation, also leading to higher residence time and degradation potential. Our study highlights the interaction between coastal urban habitat modification by establishment of artificial reefs, and pollution. This emergent phenomenon is an important issue to be considered in future management plans and the engineering of coastal ecosystems.
沿海城市基础设施在全球范围内不断增加，但关于其产生的影响的知识仍然有限。在此，我们提供证据表明，城市人工礁具有很高的潜力来积累源自城市周边人为活动的各种垃圾。我们检验了这样一个假设：与相邻的天然岩石潮间带栖息地相比，城市防波堤的结构复杂性是人为垃圾积累的一个驱动因素。我们在七个地点（城市）测定了垃圾丰度，并估算了从智利北部到中部的城市防波堤及相邻自然栖息地的结构复杂性，跨度约为15°的纬度梯度（南纬18°至33°）。在所有研究地点，与自然栖息地相比，沿海防波堤中的人为垃圾密度显著更高（人工礁上约为每平方米15.1件，而自然栖息地中为每平方米7.4件），这种模式在时间上具有持续性。不同类型的垃圾在人工礁上比在自然栖息地中更为丰富，当地人口密度和防波堤长度导致垃圾出现的概率增加了约10%。此外，人工礁上的结构复杂性大约高出两倍，人为垃圾密度在结构复杂性的中间水平最高。因此，人工礁的空间结构特征似乎增强了人为垃圾的积累，也导致了更长的停留时间和更高的降解潜力。我们的研究突出了通过建立人工礁对沿海城市栖息地进行改造与污染之间的相互作用。这种新出现的现象是未来管理计划和沿海生态系统工程中需要考虑的一个重要问题。
