Artificial marine infrastructures now cover large stretches of the available natural shoreline in many parts of the world. This is having a substantial impact on the local marine ecosystems as biodiverse natural hard substrata are being replaced with man-made structures, which have been shown to support lower levels of biodiversity.

The ecological value of artificial coastal structures could be enhanced through careful design of pre-fabricated ecologically engineered units. Material selection is a critical parameter in the design of these units. To maximise the potential of concrete units to support and increase biodiversity, this paper explores the impact of binder composition, aggregate type and plasticizer on surface chemistry and early biofilm formation which influence subsequent colonisation. Experiments in the current study have shown that the addition of ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) to the mix can increase the levels of biodiversity supported while maintaining engineering performance requirements in terms of strength, chloride resistance and alkalinity. Conversely the aggregate type and use of a plasticizer have a minor influence. In particular, the addition of GGBS was shown to increase the biomass of diatoms, cyanobacteria and green algae and barnacle abundance one month after immersion on both sheltered surfaces and those exposed to wave action. Results suggest that concrete composition can alter the surface chemistry of artificial structures and thereby can improve the ecological value of these structures as habitats for marine life.

现在，人工海洋基础设施覆盖了世界许多地方的大部分可用自然海岸线。这已对当地海洋生态系统产生了重大影响，因为生物多样性的天然硬基质已被人造结构所取代，人造结构已被证明可支持较低水平的生物多样性。

通过精心设计预制的生态工程单元，可以提高人工沿海结构的生态价值。材料选择是这些单元设计中的关键参数。为了最大程度地发挥混凝土单元支持和增加生物多样性的潜力，本文探讨了粘合剂组成，集料类型和增塑剂对表面化学和早期生物膜形成的影响，这些影响随后的定居。当前研究的实验表明，向混合物中添加粉碎的高炉矿渣粉（GGBS）可以增加所支持的生物多样性水平，同时在强度，耐氯化物和碱度方面保持工程性能要求。相反，骨料类型和增塑剂的使用影响较小。特别是，结果表明，添加GGBS可以增加硅藻，蓝细菌，绿藻和藤壶的生物量，使它们浸没在两个被遮盖的表面和暴露于波浪作用的表面上一个月后即可。结果表明，混凝土成分可以改变人造结构的表面化学性质，从而可以改善这些结构作为海洋生物栖息地的生态价值。