Scale and Community Structure of Coral Reef Fishes: A Long-Term Study of a Large Artificial Reef

Abstract

The fish comn~unity of a large artificial reef made In 1960 of 800 concrete blocks in a seagrass bed on the south coast of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, was studied by comparing a series of visual censuses (1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979) with each other and with a 1962 total-poison station collection (Randall, 1963). Discounting the presence of some cryptic species in the poison station that would not normally be seen in visual censuses (N = 10), as well as discounting seagrass-bed residents and roaming species only transient on the reef (N = 13), all of the censuses and the poison station (range 31-40 spp.) were found to be similar (Spearman Rank Correlations: all p C .01). This stability stands in contrast to the apparent unpredictability reported for smaller artificial and natural reef structures on the Great Barrier Reef Dybdahl 1975, 1978;Talbot et al., 1978) which has been attributed to chance factors of recruitment. We interpret our results as evidence for orderly Interactions as important factors in the determination of community structure, and suggest that short-tern~ studies of small reefs lack the resolving power to detect this type of evidence.

Habitat-dependent recruitment of two temperate reef fishes at multiple spatial scales

“…data). Species-specific responses to coverage of habitat support the idea that heterogeneous landscapes enable a more diverse community structure (Connell 1978, Ogden & Ebersole 1981, Jones & Syms 1998.…”

Fish community modeling agents on an artificial reef on the northern coast of Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

“…The considerable efforts allocated to artificial reefs construction surpass the efforts to comprehend their ecology (Bohnsack & Sutherland, 1985). According to Carslile et al (1964), Sale & Dybdahl (1975) and Ogden & Ebersole (1981), the presence of a sessile diversified community on experimental modules increases the diversity of microhabitats, an important and necessary resource to invertebrate and fish colonization. Physical space increases the available habitat, providing food and shelter in minimum levels, which guarantees the capacity of maintaining recruitment and survival rates through the perpetuation of their populations.…”

Intra- versus inter-annual variation in counts of reef fishes and interpretations of long-term monitoring studies

“…Many studies of the dynamics of coral reef fish populations or assemblages have been concentrated on isolated patch reefs, based on the premise that patch reefs are effectively isolates, and unlikely to be subject to variation because of movement or migration of fishes (Smith & Tyler 1975, Gladfelter & Gladfelter 1978, Brock et al 1979, Ogden & Ebersole 1981, Sale & Steel 1989. This assertion was questioned by Bohnsack (1983) and then disputed by Lewis (1997) and Ault & Johnson (1998), who ascribed variation in the abundance of certain species to significant migration among patch reefs.…”