Abstract
Upright type port and harbor structures have been adopted to quay walls, breakwaters and other maritime structures. The organic matters of faeces and pseudofaeces loaded by suspended feeder inhabiting on the wall would fall onto seabed of adjacent area, resulting in consuming dissolved oxygen. Eutrophic inner bays usually experience a thermocline during summer season. Therefore, depositions of organic matters derived from attached animals would promote hypoxia in the hypolimnion. The design technique has been developed as one solution of this problem, which is based on the ecosystem engineering for creating the artificial shoal area inside of vertical structures. The objective of the technique is to activate material cycle by installation of artificial shoal through the food web from attached animals to benthic animals feeding organic matter excreted by attached animals.
In the discussion, we proposed the idea for creating the artificial shoal space inside a caisson type upright breakwater developed for the Mishimakawanoe port in Ehime prefecture, located western part of Japan.
