Reefense: Living shoreline mosaics can achieve ecological and engineering outcomes with interdisciplinary design
Living shorelines that comprise oyster reefs within a mosaic of multiple coastal habitats can be a resilient and adaptive coastal protection alternative to conventional engineered structures. The success of an oyster reef living shoreline depends on the evolution of a stable base substrate that provides initial short-term coastal protection, to the growth of a living oyster reef and associated habitats in the longer-term, which can enhance protection and provide other ecosystem services. Interdisciplinary global teams that include ecologists, biologists, engineers, techno-economists, and industry are leading the development and implementation of innovative reef-based coastal protection ("Reefense") solutions that can be scaled to face the challenges of climate change.
Authors
- Prashansa Shrestha
- David Bushek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0701-4267)
- Jyotismita Taye (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2730-3824)
- Nigel Temple (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1907-3894)
- Cynthia E. M. Lupton
- Jenny P. Shinn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1886-2499)
- Eric Sparks (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1102-2478)
- M. A. Williams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2018-9545)
- Ximing Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6758-2709)
- Danielle Kreeger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9177-0366)
- Ryan Lowe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7080-8406)
- Sandra M. Casas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4080-9432)
- Madhuwanthi Rupasinghe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2745-6302)
- Richard E. Riman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4289-5768)
- Ella R. Rothermel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1781-6498)
- Jérôme F. La Peyre (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4006-9646)
- Jaden Akers
- Rackel San Nicolas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7866-630X)
- F. Scott Rikard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6253-9859)
- Hongyue Jin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9531-340X)
- Rebecca L. Morris (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0455-0811)
- Kelly M. Kibler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1883-0873)
- Justin Geldard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-3127-8075)
- Alex Goad
- William Mather
- Manisha Thenuwara
- Hani Nassif
- Michael Ruszala
- Reid Holland
- Andrew W.M. Pomeroy
- Marco Ghisalberti
- Zhenwei Wang
- Brendan S. Lanham
- Peter B. Vien
- Stephen E. Swearer
Institutions
- University of Central Florida (US)
- Australian Institute of Marine Science (AU)
- Louisiana State University Agricultural Center (US)
- University of Arizona (US)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- The University of Western Australia (AU)
- Coastal Carolina University (US)
- Ocean Institute (US)
- Rutgers Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (NL)
- Division of Materials Science and Engineering (AU)
- Center for Climate and Resilience Research (CL)
- Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership (US)
- Reef Environmental Education Foundation (US)
- Mississippi Alabama Sea Grant Consortium (US)
- Shell (Netherlands) (NL)
- Auburn University (US)
- Mississippi State University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2026-04-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2516197123
- Primary Topic
- Coastal and Marine Management
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Australian Research Council