Gittman Rachel K, Scyphers Steven B, Smith Carter S, Neylan Isabelle P, Grabowski Jonathan H
Rachel K. Gittman (
Bioscience. 2016 Sep 1;66(9):763-773. doi: 10.1093/biosci/biw091. Epub 2016 Aug 10.
Protecting coastal communities has become increasingly important as their populations grow, resulting in increased demand for engineered shore protection and hardening of over 50% of many urban shorelines. Shoreline hardening is recognized to reduce ecosystem services that coastal populations rely on, but the amount of hardened coastline continues to grow in many ecologically important coastal regions. Therefore, to inform future management decisions, we conducted a meta-analysis of studies comparing the ecosystem services of biodiversity (richness or diversity) and habitat provisioning (organism abundance) along shorelines with versus without engineered-shore structures. Seawalls supported 23% lower biodiversity and 45% fewer organisms than natural shorelines. In contrast, biodiversity and abundance supported by riprap or breakwater shorelines were not different from natural shorelines; however, effect sizes were highly heterogeneous across organism groups and studies. As coastal development increases, the type and location of shoreline hardening could greatly affect the habitat value and functioning of nearshore ecosystems.
随着沿海社区人口的增长，保护这些社区变得越来越重要，这导致对工程护岸的需求增加，许多城市海岸线超过50%都进行了硬化处理。人们认识到海岸线硬化会减少沿海居民所依赖的生态系统服务，但在许多具有重要生态意义的沿海地区，硬化海岸线的长度仍在不断增加。因此，为了为未来的管理决策提供依据，我们对一些研究进行了荟萃分析，这些研究比较了有工程护岸结构和没有工程护岸结构的海岸线在生物多样性（丰富度或多样性）和栖息地供给（生物丰度）方面的生态系统服务。与自然海岸线相比，海堤支撑的生物多样性低23%，生物数量少45%。相比之下，抛石或防波堤海岸线所支撑的生物多样性和生物丰度与自然海岸线没有差异；然而，不同生物群体和研究的效应大小差异很大。随着沿海开发的增加，海岸线硬化的类型和位置可能会极大地影响近岸生态系统的栖息地价值和功能。
