Scholars@Duke
Avery Paxton

Avery Paxton

Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Marine Science and Conservation Division
Marine Science and Conservation

Selected Publications

Leveraging built marine structures to benefit and minimize impacts on natural habitats

Journal Article BioScience · February 1, 2025 Many natural marine habitats are decreasing in extent despite global conservation and restoration efforts. In contrast, built marine structures, such as hardened shorelines, offshore energy and aquaculture infrastructure, and artificial reefs, are increasi ... Full text Cite

Beyond despair: Leveraging ecosystem restoration for psychosocial resilience.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · January 2025 Ecosystem restoration has historically been viewed as an ecological endeavor, but restoration possesses significant, yet largely untapped, potential as a catalyst for personal and social transformation. We highlight the opportunity for restoration to enhan ... Full text Cite

Recommendations for built marine infrastructure that supports natural habitats

Journal Article Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment · January 1, 2025 The extent of built marine infrastructure—from energy infrastructure and ports to artificial reefs and aquaculture—is increasing globally. The rise in built structure coverage is concurrent with losses and degradation of many natural habitats. Although his ... Full text Cite

Evidence on the performance of nature-based solutions interventions for coastal protection in biogenic, shallow ecosystems: a systematic map.

Journal Article Environmental evidence · December 2024 BackgroundCombined impacts from anthropogenic pressures and climate change threaten coastal ecosystems and their capacity to protect communities from hazards. One approach towards improving coastal protection is to implement "nature-based solution ... Full text Cite

Harnessing ecological theory to enhance ecosystem restoration.

Journal Article Current biology : CB · May 2024 Ecosystem restoration can increase the health and resilience of nature and humanity. As a result, the international community is championing habitat restoration as a primary solution to address the dual climate and biodiversity crises. Yet most ecosystem r ... Full text Cite

Evidence on the ecological and physical effects of built structures in shallow, tropical coral reefs: a systematic map.

Journal Article Environmental evidence · May 2024 BackgroundShallow, tropical coral reefs face compounding threats from climate change, habitat degradation due to coastal development and pollution, impacts from storms and sea-level rise, and pulse disturbances like blast fishing, mining, dredging ... Full text Cite

Artificial reef footprint in the United States ocean

Journal Article Nature Sustainability · February 1, 2024 Marine ecosystem declines have spurred global efforts to restore degraded habitats, manage marine life and enhance recreation opportunities by installing built structures called artificial reefs in seascapes. Evidence suggests that artificial reefs generat ... Full text Cite

Shipwreck ecology: Understanding the function and processes from microbes to megafauna.

Journal Article Bioscience · January 2024 An estimated three million shipwrecks exist worldwide and are recognized as cultural resources and foci of archaeological investigations. Shipwrecks also support ecological resources by providing underwater habitats that can be colonized by diverse organis ... Full text Cite

Artificial structure selection by economically important reef fishes at North Carolina artificial reefs

Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science · January 1, 2024 Artificial reefs can play an important role in marine fisheries management by supplementing or enhancing natural habitats. Despite their increased use in recent years, the choice of structures used at artificial reefs remains largely haphazard due to the l ... Full text Cite

What evidence exists on the ecological and physical effects of built structures in shallow, tropical coral reefs? A systematic map protocol.

Journal Article Environmental evidence · September 2023 BackgroundShallow, tropical coral reefs face compounding threats from habitat degradation due to coastal development and pollution, impacts from storms and sea-level rise, and pulse disturbances like blast fishing, mining, dredging, and ship groun ... Full text Cite

What evidence exists on the performance of nature-based solutions interventions for coastal protection in biogenic, shallow ecosystems? A systematic map protocol.

Journal Article Environmental evidence · May 2023 BackgroundAnthropogenic pressures and climate change threaten the capacity of ecosystems to deliver a variety of services, including protecting coastal communities from hazards like flooding and erosion. Human interventions aim to buffer against o ... Full text Cite

Survey of epiphytic microalgae to evaluate risk of ciguatera fish poisoning across natural and artificial reefs in North Carolina

Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science · January 1, 2023 Epiphytic microalgae are important contributors to the carbon and nutrient cycles yet are often overlooked during ecological surveys. In reef habitats, epiphytes are often found living on host organisms, including seaweeds or corals, and can influence comm ... Full text Cite

Spatial extent and isolation of marine artificial structures mediate fish density

Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science · January 1, 2023 Installations of artificial structures in coastal oceans create de facto habitat for marine life. These structures encompass wide varieties of physical characteristics, reflecting their multiple, diverse purposes and creating a need to understand which cha ... Full text Cite

Intuitively visualizing spatial data from biogeographic assessments: A 3-dimensional case study on remotely sensing historic shipwrecks and associated marine life

Journal Article Frontiers in Climate · October 6, 2022 Biogeographic assessments aim to determine spatial and temporal distributions of organisms and habitats to help inform resource management decisions. In marine systems, rapid technological advances in sensors employed for biogeographic assessments allow sc ... Full text Cite

Quantifying spatial extents of artificial versus natural reefs in the seascape

Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science · September 14, 2022 With increasing human uses of the ocean, existing seascapes containing natural habitats, such as biogenic reefs or plant-dominated systems, are supplemented by novel, human-made habitats ranging from artificial reefs to energy extraction infrastructure and ... Full text Cite

Fitting ecological principles of artificial reefs into the ocean planning puzzle

Journal Article Ecosphere · February 1, 2022 Humans use the coastal ocean and its resources as a source of food and energy, as well as for a variety of other purposes, including transportation and recreation. Over the past several decades, uses of the coastal ocean have been increasingly accompanied ... Full text Cite

Passive acoustic monitoring complements traditional methods for assessing marine habitat enhancement outcomes

Journal Article Ecosphere · November 1, 2021 Habitat enhancement, often accomplished through the introduction of artificial structures, is a common strategy used by marine resource managers to provide habitat subsidies, protect sensitive habitat, and create new fishing opportunities. Traditional moni ... Full text Cite

Acoustic camera and net surveys reveal that nursery enhancement at living shorelines may be restricted to the marsh platform

Journal Article Ecological Engineering · August 1, 2021 Rapid human development in coastal areas is introducing significant amounts of novel habitat and leading to widespread habitat simplification. To predict how species will respond to these changes, it is important to understand how organisms interact with n ... Full text Cite

Four decades of reef observations illuminate deep-water grouper hotspots

Journal Article Fish and Fisheries · July 1, 2021 Fish often aggregate to spawn, feed, rest, or avoid predation. Direct observations of very high counts of large-bodied grouper on deep shipwrecks, however, do not fit into typical descriptions of spawning-, resource-, or predation-driven aggregations. To i ... Full text Cite

Megafauna in Salt Marshes

Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science · November 13, 2020 Megafauna shape ecosystems globally through trophic interactions, ecology of fear, and ecosystem engineering. Highly productive salt marshes at the interface of terrestrial and marine systems have the potential to support megafauna species, but a recent gl ... Full text Open Access Cite

Extracting ecological metrics from archeological surveys of shipwrecks using submersible video and laser-line scanning

Journal Article Ecosphere · November 1, 2020 Ecological metrics derived from habitat surveys can provide information necessary to understand population, community, and ecosystem processes. Here, we present a case study on the feasibility of extracting ecological metrics from archeological studies of ... Full text Cite

Soundscapes of natural and artificial temperate reefs: similar temporal patterns but distinct spectral content

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · September 10, 2020 Marine soundscapes often differ among habitats; however, relatively little is known about whether soundscapes on naturally occurring habitats differ from soundscapes on human-made structures. To address this knowledge gap, we investigated whether temporal ... Full text Cite

Short-term changes in reef fish community metrics correlate with variability in large shark occurrence

Journal Article Food Webs · September 1, 2020 Large predators exert control on lower trophic levels, often influencing long-term changes in community structure. Many large predators are highly mobile and occur in habitats along a continuum of presence and absence. In many natural systems, the movement ... Full text Cite

Meta-analysis reveals artificial reefs can be effective tools for fish community enhancement but are not one-size-fits-all

Journal Article Frontiers in Marine Science · May 7, 2020 Approaches toward habitat conservation and restoration often include supplementing or enhancing existing, degraded, or lost natural habitats. In aquatic environments, a popular approach toward habitat enhancement is the introduction of underwater human-mad ... Full text Cite

Artificial habitats host elevated densities of large reef-associated predators.

Journal Article PloS one · January 2020 Large predators play important ecological roles, yet many are disproportionately imperiled. In marine systems, artificial reefs are often deployed to restore degraded reefs or supplement existing reefs, but it remains unknown whether these interventions be ... Full text Cite

Selecting the optimal artificial reefs to achieve fish habitat enhancement goals

Journal Article Biological Conservation · October 1, 2019 Managers and conservation practitioners commonly deploy artificial habitats to restore lost natural habitats or supplement existing natural habitats. These decision makers face logistical and financial constraints in determining which type of structure (e. ... Full text Cite

Artificial reefs facilitate tropical fish at their range edge.

Journal Article Communications biology · May 6, 2019 Spatial planning increasingly incorporates theoretical predictions that artificial habitats assist species movement at or beyond range edges, yet evidence for this is uncommon. We conducted surveys of highly mobile fauna (fishes) on artificial habitats (re ... Full text Cite

Consistent spatial patterns in multiple trophic levels occur around artificial habitats

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · February 14, 2019 With increasing global rates of urbanization, it is important to understand the ecological functions of artificial structures. One way to assess the ecological functions of such structures is to test whether they function similarly to natural habitats. In ... Full text Cite

Artificial reefs facilitate tropical fish at their range edge.

Journal Article Communications biology · January 2019 Spatial planning increasingly incorporates theoretical predictions that artificial habitats assist species movement at or beyond range edges, yet evidence for this is uncommon. We conducted surveys of highly mobile fauna (fishes) on artificial habitats (re ... Full text Cite

Convergence of fish community structure between a newly deployed and an established artificial reef along a five-month trajectory

Journal Article Ecological Engineering · November 1, 2018 Numbers of human-made reefs in the world's oceans are increasing, yet questions remain about patterns and speed of fish colonization of these artificial reefs. Here, we tested 1) whether the fish community on a newly deployed artificial reef converged with ... Full text Cite

Fish use of reef structures and adjacent sand flats: implications for selecting minimum buffer zones between new artificial reefs and existing reefs

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · January 25, 2018 Artificial reefs are deployed worldwide to enhance fisheries. Placement of artificial reefs relative to nearby existing artificial and natural reefs can influence fish use of these structures, yet no quantitative guidelines exist for selecting optimal dist ... Full text Cite

Visual cues from an underwater illusion increase relative abundance of highly reef-associated fish on an artificial reef

Journal Article Marine and Freshwater Research · January 1, 2018 Cues from visual, auditory and olfactory stimuli affect habitat selection by reef fish, yet questions remain regarding how fish use visual cues to select habitats. With growing numbers of human-made structures, such as artificial reefs, deployed on ocean f ... Full text Cite

Seismic survey noise disrupted fish use of a temperate reef

Journal Article Marine Policy · April 1, 2017 Marine seismic surveying discerns subsurface seafloor geology, indicative of, for example, petroleum deposits, by emitting high-intensity, low-frequency impulsive sounds. Impacts on fish are uncertain. Opportunistic monitoring of acoustic signatures from a ... Full text Cite

Flat and complex temperate reefs provide similar support for fish: Evidence for a unimodal species-habitat relationship.

Journal Article PloS one · January 2017 Structural complexity, a form of habitat heterogeneity, influences the structure and function of ecological communities, generally supporting increased species density, richness, and diversity. Recent research, however, suggests the most complex habitats m ... Full text Cite