Rutgers has been awarded $12.6 million by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop an oyster-based shoreline ecosystem to help protect coastlines from storm damage, flooding and erosion.
The Rutgers-led project, “Reefense: A Mosaic Oyster Habitat (MOH) for Coastal Defense,” will focus on oyster reefs in the Gulf Coast and combine novel cements and concretes with state-of-the-art shellfish breeding and the latest ecological engineering of shoreline habitats.
Leading the project is David Bushek, director of Rutgers’ Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory (HSRL) and a professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences (DMCS). Richard Riman, Distinguished Professor at the Rutgers School of Engineering (SOE), is the project’s co-investigator and is leading the development of the novel engineered reef. Collaborating Rutgers researchers include Distinguished Professor Ximing Guo and associate professor Daphne Munroe, both of HSRL DMCS and Hani Nassif, a professor in the School of Engineering.
Full article at Rutgers Today