From Port Riprap to Microhabitats for Biodiversity – Carnon (34)
Within port infrastructure, artificial structures often provide uniform, low-complexity surfaces, limiting opportunities for shelter, settlement and development for many marine species.
Against this backdrop, LINEUP OCEAN, in collaboration with the Port of Carnon and the City of Mauguio Carnon, deployed a Mini-Linehouse© within the rock armour of the outer harbour quay. This experiment aims to assess how the targeted addition of ecological complexity can enhance biodiversity-supporting functions within an existing port environment.
Inspired by coastal rocky habitats and coralligenous ecosystems, the Mini-Linehouse© is a bio-inspired microhabitat whose geometry creates a diversity of cavities, surfaces and shelter areas suitable for benthic organisms and demersal species. It can therefore provide several ecological functions, including shelter, feeding grounds and nursery habitat, while remaining compatible with the port’s operational constraints.
As ecological baseline data are already available for the Carnon site, it provides a particularly valuable setting for monitoring the module’s colonisation over time and documenting the effects of this added habitat complexity on local biodiversity.
This pilot operation, carried out with the technical and maritime support of the Port of Carnon, is part of a broader approach to rethinking port infrastructure as a platform capable of combining maritime uses, innovation and support for marine life.
From Port Riprap to Microhabitats for Biodiversity – Carnon (34)
Within port infrastructure, artificial structures often provide uniform, low-complexity surfaces, limiting opportunities for shelter, settlement and development for many marine species.
Against this backdrop, LINEUP OCEAN, in collaboration with the Port of Carnon and the City of Mauguio Carnon, deployed a Mini-Linehouse© within the rock armour of the outer harbour quay. This experiment aims to assess how the targeted addition of ecological complexity can enhance biodiversity-supporting functions within an existing port environment.
Inspired by coastal rocky habitats and coralligenous ecosystems, the Mini-Linehouse© is a bio-inspired microhabitat whose geometry creates a diversity of cavities, surfaces and shelter areas suitable for benthic organisms and demersal species. It can therefore provide several ecological functions, including shelter, feeding grounds and nursery habitat, while remaining compatible with the port’s operational constraints.
As ecological baseline data are already available for the Carnon site, it provides a particularly valuable setting for monitoring the module’s colonisation over time and documenting the effects of this added habitat complexity on local biodiversity.
This pilot operation, carried out with the technical and maritime support of the Port of Carnon, is part of a broader approach to rethinking port infrastructure as a platform capable of combining maritime uses, innovation and support for marine life.