Renewable energy homes for marine life: Habitat potential of a tidal energy project for benthic megafauna.

An increasing number of offshore structures are being deployed worldwide to meet the growing demand for renewable energy. Besides energy production, these structures can also provide new artificial habitats to a diversity of fish and crustacean species. This study characterises how concrete mattresses that stabilise the submarine power cable of a tidal energy test site can increase habitat capacity for benthic megafauna.

Underwater operational noise level emitted by a tidal current turbine and its potential impact on marine fauna.

Marine renewable energy development raised concerns over the impact of underwater noise. Here we assess the acoustic impacts of an operating tidal current turbine (Paimpol-Bréhat site, France) on marine fauna. Its source level (SL) has been measured in situ using 19 drifting transects at distances between 100 m to 2400 m from the turbine.

Sex-, gametogenesis, and tidal height-related differences in levels of HSP70 and metallothioneins in the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas.

Pacific oysters, Crassostrea gigas, living at a range of tidal heights, routinely encounter large fluctuations in temperature. We demonstrate that levels of heat shock proteins (HSP) and other stress proteins (metallothioneins, MTs) quantified by ELISA, remained similar in gills, mantle and digestive gland between oysters inhabiting low and high tidal heights. In contrast, endogenous HSPs and MTs levels in gonad changed significantly during gametogenesis.