Baxter Timothy, Coombes Martin, Viles Heather
Oxford Resilient Buildings and Landscapes Lab (OxRBL), School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Oxford Resilient Buildings and Landscapes Lab (OxRBL), School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2023 Mar;188:114617. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.114617. Epub 2023 Jan 24.
Maritime built heritage (e.g., historic seawalls) represents an important component of coastal infrastructure around the world. Despite this, the ecological communities supported by these structures are poorly understood. At seven locations across the UK, we compared the biodiversity and physical habitat characteristics of (1) historic (pre-1900s) masonry walls, (2) concrete walls, and (3) natural rocky cliffs. Historic masonry walls were found to support significantly more species than concrete walls, and in some locations, more diverse communities than nearby rocky cliffs. Nevertheless, community composition remained distinct between the three habitat types at each location. We also found that historic masonry walls provided substantially more cryptic space (i.e., crevices) than both concrete walls and rocky cliffs, and this is positively associated with the ecological value of these structures. Overall, our results suggest that the unique physical properties of historic masonry walls make them an important component of habitat diversity along developed coastlines.
海洋建筑遗产（如历史悠久的海堤）是世界各地沿海基础设施的重要组成部分。尽管如此，这些建筑所支撑的生态群落却鲜为人知。在英国的七个地点，我们比较了以下三种环境的生物多样性和物理栖息地特征：（1）历史悠久的（20世纪前）砖石墙，（2）混凝土墙，以及（3）天然岩石峭壁。研究发现，历史悠久的砖石墙比混凝土墙支撑的物种要多得多，而且在某些地点，其群落比附近的岩石峭壁更加多样化。然而，每个地点的这三种栖息地类型之间的群落组成仍然截然不同。我们还发现，历史悠久的砖石墙比混凝土墙和岩石峭壁提供了更多的隐蔽空间（即裂缝），而这与这些建筑的生态价值呈正相关。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，历史悠久的砖石墙独特的物理特性使其成为发达海岸栖息地多样性的重要组成部分。
