Comparison of field methods for measuring surface topography and their associations with a tropical reef fish assemblage

نویسنده

  • Mark I. McCormick
چکیده

The relationships between 6 measures of substratum topography or vertical relief and a tropical fish assemblage were evaluated and the merits of the various measures were assessed. A method of quantifying surface topography in the field using a profile gauge is introduced and found to be rapid and to generate concise summary statistics. Of the 6 measures of substratum topography compared, 1 was novel, 2 were derivations of geomorphological techniques and 3 had been previously used in reef fish studies. Measures included the sum of consecutive substratum height differences, vector standard deviation (SD), substratum angle SD, substratum height SD, substratum height coefficient of variation (CV) and the ratio of contoured surface distance to linear distance ('chain-and-tape'). All but the CV were found to grossly differentiate among surfaces that varied in corrugation height and frequency. Consecutive substratum height difference, substratum angle SD and vector SD were best able to differentiate between 9 schematic profiles of varying topography. A field test of the methods was carried out on 100 quadrats (3 X 3 m) from the backreef of Lizard Island, northern Great Barrier Reef, Australia, in which the surface topography, fish and benthic communities had been sampled. The consecutive height difference method performed consistently well, scoring the highest average correlations with total fish abundance, diversity and the abundance of individual species. In an examination of the relationship between the backreef fish assemblage, substratum topography and the cover of benthic organisms, topography was only secondary in importance to depth in describing the patterns of damselfish abundance at the scale sampled.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

The effect of artificial reefs on fish assemblage versus natural sites in the Bandar Lengeh-Iran

  Artificial reefs are used to compensate the destruction of marine ecosystems. In the present study, the effects of artificial reefs were compared to natural sites. For this purpose, five treatments including four different forms (Reef ball (R), Laneh Mahi (L), used materials (U) and R+L+U) of artificial reefs and one control were established. The reefs were deployed at Bandar Lengeh, the Pers...

متن کامل

Tropical Fishes Dominate Temperate Reef Fish Communities within Western Japan

Climate change is resulting in rapid poleward shifts in the geographical distribution of tropical and subtropical fish species. We can expect that such range shifts are likely to be limited by species-specific resource requirements, with temperate rocky reefs potentially lacking a range of settlement substrates or specific dietary components important in structuring the settlement and success o...

متن کامل

Natural and human-induced variability in the composition of fish assemblages in the Northwestern Cuban shelf.

The main goal of the study was to obtain field data to build a baseline of fish assemblage composition that can be used comparatively for future analyses of the impact of human actions in the region. A basic network of 68 sampling stations was defined for the entire region (4,050 km2). Fish assemblage species and size composition was estimated using visual census methods at three different spat...

متن کامل

Spatial and temporal distribution of larvae of coral reef fishes in northern Red Sea, Egypt

The larval community of coral reef fishes in the Red Sea was studied in coastal and offshore sites to determine the effects of the exposure to waves and currents and the distance from the shore in structuring the larval fish community. Plankton sampling from inshore and offshore sites and the exposed and sheltered sides of the reefs resulted in the collection of 2048 larvae representing 49 diff...

متن کامل

Spatial and temporal distribution of larvae of coral reef fishes in northern Red Sea, Egypt

The larval community of coral reef fishes in the Red Sea was studied in coastal and offshore sites to determine the effects of the exposure to waves and currents and the distance from the shore in structuring the larval fish community. Plankton sampling from inshore and offshore sites and the exposed and sheltered sides of the reefs resulted in the collection of 2048 larvae representing 49 diff...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره   شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2006