Abstract
Environmental impacts from wave energy generators on the local mobile mega- and macrofauna community have been investigated in the Lysekil project by Uppsala University. Offshore renewable energy installations provide hard, artificial substrates, and as such, they could act as artificial reefs. Foundations with manufactured holes served as complex habitats and foundations without served as non-complex. In this long-term study, SCUBA surveys of mobile fauna in the years 2007, 2008 and 2016–2019 were analyzed. The results show a distinct reef effect on the foundations with significant greater species richness, total number of individuals, greater values of the Shannon-Wiener biodiversity index, and greater abundance of specific reef fauna. Complex foundations accommodated a greater abundance of brown crabs than non-complex foundations, other taxa did not show differences between the two foundation types. A successional increase of species richness, numbers of individuals and Shannon-Wiener biodiversity could be revealed from the first to the second survey period. Inter-annual variation was visible throughout all taxa and years.
Highlights
The aim of a fossil free electricity generation will necessitate an increased development of renewable energy sources
Our study addresses the following questions: Are metrics such as species richness, total number of individuals, Shannon-Wiener index and evenness different on foundations compared to controls in all survey years? Does the species assemblage differ between the foundations and the controls or between the complex foundations and the non-complex foundations? How is it for single specific species such as Cancer pagu rus, Pagurus spp
A clear reef effect was found on the foundations throughout all study years (Fig. 3 and Table 2)
Summary
The aim of a fossil free electricity generation will necessitate an increased development of renewable energy sources. Offshore renew able energy sources will further expand in the coming years such as offshore wind and wave and tidal energy may establish commer cialization. This means further introduction of manmade structures in an already heavily used marine environment (Hammar et al, 2017). Increased deployment activities of offshore renewable installations could facilitate the spread, expand the range (De Mesel et al, 2015) and help the establishment of invasive species (Glasby et al, 2007)
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