There was much interest in the recent THESEUS themed section at the 9^th International Temperate Reefs Symposium at the University of Plymouth which featured a range of talks on ‘Artificial structures’.

Christof Schygula from the University of Rostock spoke about Reef Nienhagen – the largest artificial reef in the Baltic Sea. The chair of the session, Mark Browne of University College Dublin spoke about the use of concrete planters on seawalls as an effective method of increasing urban biodiversity in Sydney Harbour. Juliette Jackson from the University of Plymouth who works on THESEUS spoke about the influence of environmental design features for marine life inhabiting coastal engineering structures. Florian Peine from the University of Rostock presented his research on the hydrodynamics and particle behaviour within artificial reefs in the Baltic Sea. Heather Hunt from the University of New Brunswick spoke about cobble-filled collectors as a monitoring tool for biodiversity patterns in rocky subtidal habitats and José Maria Fariñas-Franco from Queens University Belfast spoke about the restoration of degraded biogenic reefs in Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland.