Effectiveness of living shorelines in the Salish Sea

In human-impacted coastal ecosystems, living shorelines are becoming a common restoration technique. However, we lack comprehensive understanding of the ecological and physical benefits, how they could inform management needs. To address this, studied effectiveness at broad spatial scale within Washington State boundaries Salish Sea, USA, with restored site ages spanning 1–11 years. We surveyed 30 beaches ten locations, each three strata of: (1) shoreline armor removed, (2) armored control altered by seawalls or riprap, (3) un-armored reference natural conditions. sampled eight biological attributes: beach wrack, wrack invertebrates, sediments, terrestrial insects, riparian vegetation, logs, profiles, stable isotope signatures talitrid amphipods – generating 27 metrics focusing on upper intertidal supratidal elevations affected armoring targeted actions. These spanned functions stability, diversity, food web support for juvenile salmon. Statistical tests showed that 19 had significant differences, indicating some restore quickly (e.g., accumulation), while others take longer log accumulation). Terrestrial-associated were higher beaches, but insect taxa richness logs plant growth increased four more years (the average age sites). This implies certain increase through time, providing improved support. Globally, trajectories have shown range functional improvement will be important to monitor nature-based solutions defense given increasing rate stressors from global change sea level rise.