Living Seawalls 6-Month Check-In

This summer marks six months since the installation of Living Seawalls habitat enhancement panels at Condor Street Urban Wild in East Boston and Fan Pier in the Seaport – and the biodiversity is already making waves.

Early arrivals include seaweeds, barnacles, and mussels, signaling that these structures are providing homes for important marine species that themselves also provide habitat and food to other life.

On recent hot days, researchers observed that the rockpools in some of the panels were nearly 40 degrees F cooler than the surrounding seawalls, offering a powerful example of how these designs can provide critical thermal refugia for marine lids.

Supporting this work, we’ve welcomed five new summer field technicians and a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) student to assist our three PhD students and Dr. Jarrett Byrnes in ongoing monitoring.