A NEW INNOVATED AND CHEEP MODEL IN BUILDING ARTIFICIAL REEFS

A NEW INNOVATED AND CHEEP MODEL IN BUILDING
ARTIFICIAL REEFS
MOHAMMED S.A. AMMAR
1
AND MONTASER A. MAHMOUD
2
1 Associate professor, Coral Reefs. Head of Hurghada Marine Research Station, National
Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Hurghada, Egypt
2 Research Assistance. Hurghada Marine Research Station, National Institute of
Oceanography and Fisheries, Hurghada, Egypt
Keywords: Coral reef, artificial reefs, transplantation, substrate, model, sedimentation.
ABSTRACT
A novel and cheep approach for building artificial reefs was designed in such a way
that sediments in an area of high sedimentation rate will be utilized in building the artificial
substrate with no further sediment accumulation afterwards. The model consists of several
steel cylinders which are soldered together in such a way to form a reef flat, a gentle slope
and a steep slope, with two layers of narrow opening meshes (a lower plastic and an upper
metallic one). Within a short periode (3 months), a substrate layer of a total of ~ 1 cm was
formed between the two meshes, this layer increased to ~2 cm after 9 months. Transplants
of the three species Stylophora pistillata, Echinopora gemmacea and Montipora spongiosa
grow better when the attaching surface is oriented with a narrower angle than 90
o with the
vertical axis, while Acropora granulosa grows better on the reef flat and steep slope
(narrower angle than that of the gentle slope).