The rainbow connection: the case for including substrate colour in the ‘eco-engineering’ of marine constructions

The urbanisation of the world’s coastlines is replacing diverse natural substrates with grey concrete. The changing shoreline colourscape may potentially influence colonisation of marine surfaces, by influencing settlement patterns and predator-prey interactions, but is overlooked in the design of marine structures for ecological co-benefits.
This study assessed how manipulating the colour of concrete influenced benthic community development on intertidal seawalls in Sydney Harbour, Australia, when fin-fish predators had access to panels or were excluded by cages. Four colours were compared at high and low intertidal elevations of two sites: grey (the colour of concrete); red and yellow (the colours of natural Sydney sandstone rock) and green (the colour of algal biofilms).
Red substrate developed distinct ecological communities compared to yellow, green and grey substrates, with many taxa positively associated with red. Effects of colour were greater in the low than the high intertidal..., , # The rainbow connection: the case for including substrate colour in the ‘eco-engineering’ of marine constructions

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.v41ns1s7w](10.5061/dryad.v41ns1s7w)

## Description of the data and file structure

### Files and variables

#### Files: 6weeks.csv, 3months.csv, 6months.csv, 12months.csv

**Description:** Data on the abundance of sessile and mobile taxa present 6 weeks, and 3, 6 and 12 months post-deployment for different panel colours (colour; grey, yellow, red, green), sites (Site; KP=Kurraba Point, MM= McMahons Point), intertidal heights (height, H=high and L=low) and cage treatments (treatment; open, half and cage).

For 6weeks, columns 'Barnacle' through to 'Ulva' are sessile species and are expressed as percent covers. At 6weeks, columns Siphonaria_funiculata and to the right are mobile species and are counts per panel.

For 3months, 6months, 12months, columns Amphibalanus_amphitrite through to Watersipora_subtorquata are for sessile species and are expr...,