A materials roadmap for marine infrastructure: a path towards enhanced ecological performance in a changing world

Climate change is driving significant changes along the UK's coastlines and amongst its marine habitats. Consequently, rising sea levels and stormier seas threaten UK coastlines and infrastructure, requiring engineering upgrades and additions to our coastal defensive infrastructure. Simultaneously, the UK is undergoing an accelerating and widespread deployment of marine renewable energy infrastructure. Both of these trends lead to the 'urbanisation' of marine environments through deployment of non-local rock- and concrete-based marine infrastructure (RCMI). The ecological impacts of RCMI have been subject to increasing research interest, notably in intertidal habitats. Pioneering work here has shown that such structures can have strong negative impacts on natural ecological communities, and that these structures may struggle to support significant marine life. Therefore, research increasingly focuses on mitigating such impacts through enhancing artificial habitat on such structures. Current research directions, however, have overlooked the need to examine the materials themselves used in marine infrastructure (c.f. a focus on surface complexity and artificial habitat creation), and have not extensively explored how ecological impacts may play out within subtidal habitats. Because subtidal habitats support significant biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and ecosystem services that provide an important flow of natural capital to society, so it is vital to better understand the ecological implications of a future proliferation of RCMIs within subtidal marine habitats. This is also of strategic importance to the UK's marine renewable energy sector; the importance of sustainability in business today challenges companies to innovate and deliver environmental gains. As the UK is a global leader in marine renewable energy, so there is the opportunity for significant societal impact by delivering R&D level improvements that will be built into tomorrow's infrastructure and exported across the globe.

My Fellowship research proposal lays out a pathway to deliver significant ecological improvements in the performance of materials used in subtidal RCMI. Consequently, the relevance and novelty of my proposed research has garnered significant support from industry partners. My Fellowship would take a holistic approach to delivering improvements in materials, through a strongly experimental approach, complimented with field survey.