Study of Environmental Effects of Application of Scrap Tires as Artificial Reefs

Artificial reefs have been suggested as a tool for conservation, enhancement and restoration of natural habitat in the marine environment. Artificial reefs have been built from a wide variety of materials in the world. Scrap tires due their availability, cost, stability and having large empty spaces, are one of the most popular materials used for building the artificial reefs. In this paper, we show the results of our study on the environmental positive and negative effects of scrap tires as artificial reefs. Increasing of aquatic biodiversity is the main positive effect associated with scrap tires while seawater pollution with heavy metals such as Zn, Cd, Cu and Pb are the most important negative effects in the marine environment. Also, in this paper we indicated that leachates from scrap tires in the fresh water (waters with low salinity) in comparison with seawater (waters with high salinity) have the largest negative impacts on the aquatic organisms. Based on the results, utilization of scrap tires as artificial reef in highly turbid waters should be controlled to prevent the waters from secondary contamination.