Abstract
Understanding how physical attributes of artificial substrates influence ecological processes is essential for the design of habitat-enhancing structures in coastal ecosystems. Here, we examine how structural heterogeneity (flat vs. heterogeneous tiles) and colour (black vs. white) of 3D-printed substrates are associated with the thermal environment and recruitment of two intertidal barnacle species, Notochthamalus scabrosus and Jehlius cirratus. Surface temperature during low tide was quantified using infrared thermography. Black tiles heated significantly more than white tiles, with temperature increases of ∼6–12 °C and 1–4 °C, respectively. However, surface heterogeneity produced measurable thermal buffering, with crevices on black tiles remaining 3–6 °C cooler than adjacent ridges, generating fine-scale thermal refugia whose magnitude varied with substrate colour. Barnacle recruitment was primarily associated with habitat structure, with high recruitment on heterogeneous tiles, especially within crevices where recruitment was two orders of magnitude greater than ridges for both species. Species-specific responses to colour were limited: J. cirratus responded only to microhabitat identity, whereas N. scabrosus exhibited additional sensitivity to substrate colour. These results suggest that structural heterogeneity can mitigate thermal stress by providing stable microhabitats that may enhance post settlement survival and recruitment, even on thermally extreme artificial substrates. Our findings highlight the roles of substrate colour and microtopographic complexity in shaping thermal environments and recruitment patterns and provide a mechanistic basis for disentangling structural and functional components of thermal heterogeneity in artificial substrates under warming conditions.
Data availability
All data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary information files.
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Acknowledgements
We thank CICLA (Chile) for providing technical information on the pigment composition of the PLA filaments. We appreciate the constructive feedback, careful evaluations, and insightful suggestions from the anonymous reviewers, which significantly improved the statistical framework, methodological clarity, and overall presentation of this work.
Funding
ANID Fondecyt 1221322 and Anillos ACT240004 (Shell-NBS) to NAL, MAL and CG-H.
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Nelson Lagos: Conceptualization, Supervision, Investigation, Methodology, Data curation, Funding acquisition, writing – review & editing. Marco A. Lardies: Writing – original draft, editing, Methodology, Formal analysis, Supervision, Resources. Claudio García: Writing – original draft, Resources, Data curation. Nicolás M. Leppes: Methodology, Investigation, Data curation, Formal analysis, writing – review & editing. Felipe Moscoso: Methodology, Investigation, writing – review & editing. Diego Herrera: Methodology, Investigation, Data curation, writing – review & editing.
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All procedures were conducted in accordance with the Research Ethics guidelines of ANID-Chile (2019) and were approved by the Bioethics Committee of Santo Tomás University.
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Lagos, N.A., Lardies, M.A., García-Herrera, C. et al. Substrate heterogeneity outweighs colour in shaping thermal environment and intertidal barnacle recruitment on artificial surfaces. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-40877-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-40877-w
