artificial breakwaters as garbage bins structural complexity enhances anthropogenic litter accumulation in marine intertidal habitats外文.pdf

Environmental Pollution 214 (2016) 737e747
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Environmental Pollution
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Artificial breakwaters as garbage bins: Structural complexity enhances
anthropogenic litter accumulation in marine intertidal habitats*
*
Moises A. Aguilera a, b, , Bernardo R. Broitman b, Martin Thiel a, b
a Departamento de Biología Marina, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, Universidad Catolica del Norte, Larrondo, 1281, Coquimbo, Chile

b Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Aridas (CEAZA), Ossandon 877, Coquimbo, Chile
article info abstract
Article history: Coastal urban infrastructures are proliferating across the world, but knowledge about their emergent
Received 9 February 2016 impacts is still limited. Here, we provide evidence that urban artificial reefs have a high potential to
Received in revised form accumulate the diverse forms of litter originating from anthropogenic activities around cities. We test the
15 April 2016
hypothesis that the structural complexity of urban breakwaters, when compared with adjacent natural
Accepted 16 April 2016
rocky intertidal habitats, is a driver of anthropogenic litter accumulation. We determined litter abun-
Available online 3 May 2016
dances at seven sites (cities) and estimated the structural complexity in both urban breakwaters and
adjacent natural habitats from northern to central Chile, spanning a latitudinal