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University of North Florida students installing POSH units to help combat coastal erosion/UNF

Eight-hundred-thousand dollars is being spent on shoreline restoration projects at Cumberland Island National Seashore in Georgia and Fort Matanzas National Monument and Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve in Florida.

The National Park Service funding to the University of North Florida will be used to expand pervious oyster shell habitat (POSH units) to create living shorelines that help restore coastal ecosystems and sustain against the impacts of coastal erosion. The process involves using cement and recycled oyster shells to enhance oyster reefs.

“The Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve and National Park Service are proud to partner with UNF to protect and enhance shorelines along the Georgia and Florida coasts,” said Chris Hughes, superintendent at Timucuan. “This partnership focuses on preserving the invaluable ecological services, natural resources and recreational opportunities provided by our shorelines. By combining the preserve’s expertise in conservation and UNF’s strengths in research and innovation, we aim to address critical issues such as shoreline erosion, habitat protection and sustainable recreation.”      

The grant will be used to purchase a concrete batch plant, a machine only available at a few universities in the world, which will help UNF researchers improve production of the POSH units. So far more than 100 units have been installed at Timucuan and Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve.

According to a release from the university, "[S]horelines are badly eroding in Florida and Georgia. Over the past century, natural oyster reefs have also disappeared at an alarming rate due to commercial oyster harvesting and other factors. If this continues, it could represent an ecological catastrophe because oyster reefs are a critical component associated with salt marsh ecosystems that provide benefits including shoreline protection, nutrient filtration and habitat for aquatic organisms."

Preliminary results from POSH units at Timucuan "indicate that the POSH units reduce the effects of wave energy under certain conditions, trap sediment, promote shoreline accretion and recruit oysters at a much faster rate than similar structures designed to restore oyster reefs, without the use of plastics that could degrade and harm the environment."