Artificial Hard Substrate Garden

The Artificial Hard Substrate Garden (AHSG) is an in-situ experimental platform, composed of flexible and modular artificial hard substrate devices. The AHSG is designed to support research on the impacts of man-made structures (mariculture installations, renewable energy devices, antifouling treatments, coastal protection structures, etc.) on marine environments. Managed by the Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) and available through the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC), the AHSG includes several devices:

1. Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS)

ARMS are deployed worldwide as 3D collectors of marine life and allow the investigation of settlement patterns and the collection of colonizing organisms for lab-based experimental research.

2. Substrate Tables

These metal structures are lowered to the seafloor, serving research on in-situ settlement cues/preferences and complexity-diversity relationships, however their design can serve a much wider variety of research questions.

3. Artificial Hard Substrate Moorings

These suspended cubical cages are equipped with different types of settlement plates or spat collectors to study settlement preferences, complexity-diversity relationships, or to collect undisturbed marine specimens. They further guide material choices and fouling/antifouling treatments.

4.Littoral modules

The littoral modules are custom-made steel buoys with three rings to sample the top layers of the water column. Each ring holds nine settlement plates, offering a standardized method to study fouling processes with the aim to support the development of eco-friendly offshore installations.

These devices support various research areas and can be aligned with other EMBRC services. For more information, contact wdeclercq@naturalsciences.be & jvanaverbeke@naturalsciences.be or visit the EMBRC service catalogue.