The Ecology of Underwater Cultural Heritage: From Microbial Communities to Macrofauna

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "The Ecology of Underwater Cultural Heritage: From Microbial Communities to Macrofauna," at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) provides a unique opportunity for exploring how the human-built environment influences benthic ecology and how biological communities, in turn, affect UCH in the marine environment. Archaeological site formation processes are coupled with the development of microbial communities, recruitment of benthic invertebrates and fish, and community succession. Microorganisms (e.g., bacteria, archaea, and fungi) are the first to colonize UCH, provide chemical cues that the structure is suitable for habitation, and serve as sentinels for long-term monitoring of site preservation and ecosystem health. UCH provides hardbottom habitat suitable for colonization by macrofauna (corals, etc.) and may serve as “stepping-stones” that facilitate dispersal of organisms between habitats in ways that differ from natural substrates. Papers in this session feature interdisciplinary research that focuses on the ecology of UCH from baseline ecological characterizations to understanding impacts from environmental disasters.