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DARPA Reefense

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Rutgers was awarded $12.6 million by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop an oyster-based shoreline ecosystem to help protect coastlines from storm damage, flooding and erosion, within DARPA’s Reefense project.

The Rutgers-led project, “Reefense: A Mosaic Oyster Habitat (MOH) for Coastal Defense,” is focused on oyster reefs in the Gulf Coast and combines novel cements and concretes with state-of-the-art shellfish breeding and the latest ecological engineering of shoreline habitats.

research group (left), engineered reef (right)
Pictured in the photo from left to right are
David Bushek, Director HSRL and Professor of Marine and Coastal Sciences
Hani Nassif, Professor of Civil Engineering
Richard Riman, Professor of Materials Sciences
Jenny Shinn, HSRL Field Researcher
Reid Holland, Grad Student in Civil Engineering
Mike Ruszala, Grad Student in Civil Engieering

Publications

  • Morris, R.L., J.E. Akers, S. Casas, J. Geldard, A. Goad, M. Ghisalberti, X. Guo, R. Holland, H. Jin, K.M. Kibler, D. Kreeger, B.S. Lanham, J.F.L. Peyre, R.J. Lowe, C.E.M. Lupton, H. Nassif, W. Mather, A.W.M. Pomeroy, E. Rothermel, M. Ruszala, M. Rupasinghe, F. Scott Rikard, R.E. Riman, R. San Nicolas, J.P. Shinn, P. Shrestha, E.L. Sparks, S.E. Swearer, J. Taye, N.A. Temple, M.N. Thenuwara, P.B. Vien, Z. Wang, M.L. Williams, & D. Bushek. 2026. Reefense: Living shoreline mosaics can achieve ecological and engineering outcomes with interdisciplinary design, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 123 (15) e2516197123, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2516197123.
  • Lanham, Brendan S. and Rebecca L. Morris. 2026. Targeted substrate design is required to improve post-settlement survival of shellfish. Marine Environmental Research, Volume 220, 108221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2026.108221.
  • Wang. Z., Casas, S., La Peyre, J., Rikard, S., Williams, M. L., Tarnecki, A., Bushek, D. and Guo, X. (2025). Genomic Selection for Dermo Resistance in the Eastern Oyster Crassostrea virginica: Production and Laboratory Testing of F1 Generation, Journal of Shellfish Research 44(1), 75-87. https://doi.org/10.2983/035.044.0108
  • Lowe, R.J., Geldard, J., Ghisalberti, M., Morris, R., Goad, A., Bryant, D., da Silva, R., Kibler, K., Sparks, E. and Bushek, D., 2025. Performance of hybrid oyster reefs for coastal protection: From design to implementation. In Australasian Coasts & Ports 2025 Conference (pp. 810-815). Adelaide, Australia
  • Lanham, B. S., Pomeroy, A. W. M., Swearer, S. E., Marusic, I., Javaherchian, J., & Morris, R. L. (2025). Substrate-mediated alterations to hydrodynamic conditions enhances shellfish larval settlement: Implications for artificial reef restoration. Ecological Engineering, 212, Article 107474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2024.107474
  • Sloey, T.M., Hildebrandt, S., Morris, R.L., Bilskie, M..V, Bland, A., Bushek, D., DiPetto, G., Elefant, D., Encomio, V., Familkhalili, R., Hladik, C., Kreeger, D., Paxton, A.B., Palinkas, C.M., Steele, L.T., Scheld, A., Taira, D., Toft, J.D., Ubeda, A.J., Whitcraft, C. & Bilkovic, D.M. (2025). A Blueprint to Greener Shorelines: Advancing the Effectiveness, Sustainability, and Widespread Adoption of Coastal Nature-Based Solutions Through Transdisciplinary Research, Estuaries and Coasts, Vol. 48, No. 5, 133. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-025-01571-8
  • Guo, X., Puritz, J.B., Wang, Z., Proestou, D., Allen, S. Jr., Small, J., Verbyla, K., Zhao, H., Haggard, J., Chriss, N., Zeng, D., Lundgren, K., Allam, B., Bushek, D., Gomez-Chiarri, M., Hare, M., Hollenbeck, C., La Peyre, J., Liu, M., Lotterhos, K. E., Plough, L., Rawson, P., Rikard, S., Saillant, E., Varney, R., Wikfors, G., & Wilbur, A. (2023). Development and evaluation of high-density SNP arrays for the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica. Marine Biotechnology, 25:174-191. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10126-022-10191-3

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