Innovative Methods of Marine Ecosystem Restoration

Book excerpt: Innovative Methods of Marine Ecosystem Restoration offers a ray of hope in an increasingly gloomy scenario. This book is the first presentation of revolutionary new methods for restoring damaged marine ecosystems. It discusses new techniques for greatly increasing the recruitment, growth, survival, and resistance to stress of marine ecosystems, fisheries, and eroding shorelines, maintaining biodiversity and productivity where it would be lost. The book provides experimental proof that mild electrical stimulation results in increased settlement, increased growth, and reduced mortality for a wide variety of marine organisms, including corals, oysters, sponges, sea-grasses, and salt-marsh grasses. In addition to the diversity of ecosystems and geographic regions covered, the contributors from fourteen nations across the globe make this work the first truly global study of marine ecosystem restoration.