Date of Award

12-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences

First Advisor

Emily Ralston

Second Advisor

Kevin B. Johnson

Third Advisor

Ralph Turingan

Fourth Advisor

Richard B. Aronson

Abstract

In the age of increasing urban coastal sprawl, natural shorelines are being replaced by hard armoring structures, which result in the loss of valuable ecosystem services. Hybrid living shorelines, areas that include limited and less intensive armoring strategies paired with the integration of plants and other natural materials, present an opportunity to marry the need for more aggressive stabilization with the continued preservation of ecosystem functions and biological communities. This project uses benthic infauna to evaluate the success of a living shoreline installation in Palm Bay, Florida. The deployment features experimental treatments of breakwaters and red mangroves to explore how the infaunal community responds to ecological restoration. Results demonstrated the breakwaters’ ability to facilitate sediment accretion, and the community of infauna increased in diversity across all treatment sites. These results support the claim that hybrid and living shorelines can provide stabilization, while also minimizing environmental disturbance, preserving habitat connectivity, and improving local biodiversity. While overall, infaunal diversity increased across every treatment zone, the type of restoration performed (i.e., breakwater only, living shoreline, or hybrid living shoreline) did have a significant effect on the specific species composition of the infaunal community in each area.

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