| 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... |
