Rebecca L. Morris, Jaden Akers, Sandra M. Casas, Justin Geldard, Alex Goad, Marco Ghisalberti, Ximing Guo, Reid Holland, Hongyue Jin, Kelly M. Kibler, Danielle Kreeger, Brendan S. Lanham, Jérôme F. La Peyre, Ryan Lowe, Cynthia E. M. Lupton, Hani Nassif, William Mather, Andrew W.M. Pomeroy, Ella R. Rothermel, Michael Ruszala, Madhuwanthi Rupasinghe, F. Scott Rikard, Richard E. Riman, Rackel San Nicolas, Jenny P. Shinn, Prashansa Shrestha, Eric Sparks, Stephen E. Swearer, Jyotismita Taye, Nigel Temple, Manisha Thenuwara, Peter B. Vien, Zhenwei Wang, M. A. Williams, David Bushek
Living shorelines that comprise oyster reefs within a mosaic of multiple coastal habitats can be a resilient and adaptive coastal protection alternative to conventional engineered structures. The success of an oyster reef living shoreline depends on the evolution of a stable base substrate that provides initial short-term coastal protection, to the growth of a living oyster reef and associated habitats in the longer-term, which can enhance protection and provide other ecosystem services. Interdisciplinary global teams that include ecologists, biologists, engineers, techno-economists, and industry are leading the development and implementation of innovative reef-based coastal protection ("Reefense") solutions that can be scaled to face the challenges of climate change.