A splash of colour makes all the difference for our harbour marine life
As our cities expand into the sea, natural shorelines are being replaced by concrete seawalls that take over our marine life’s normal habitats.
Now researchers from Macquarie University and the Sydney Institute of Marine Science have found that the colour and shape of that concrete can revitalise marine life along our foreshores.
Melanie Bishop, Professor at the School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, is a co-leader of the Living Seawalls project, and supervised the new coloured panel research.
She joined our host Jack Gembitsky on the Thursday Daily this morning.
(Photo: coloured panels deployed on seawalls in Sydney Harbour as part of the research project. Used with permission of The Lighthouse. Image: Dr Laura Ryan)
Like to read more?
Article in The Lighthouse: Living colour: how red, green and yellow concrete improves Sydney marine life
Research article in the Journal of Applied Ecology: The rainbow connection: The case for including substrate colour in the ‘eco-engineering’ of marine constructions
