Shoreline armoring is the placement of hardened structures in order to prevent erosion of shorelines. Armoring generally blocks movement of water and sediment, as well as access to the area by aquatic animals and plants.
The figure at bottom left shows accumalation of taxa for rocky shores (solid line) and seawalls (dashed line) (Chapman 2003).
The figure at bottom right shows a conceptual model of shoreline armoring effects (Williams and Thom 2001).
Controlling factors that are affected by shoreline armoring:
Currents
Elevation/Depth/Bathymetry
Hydrodynamics
Nutrients
Salinity
Sediment Quality
Turbidity
