Assessment of Temporal Variation of Fish Assemblages between Natural and Artificial Reefs

Abstract

Well-defined coral reefs and patches with high density of fishes were reported in the Arabian Gulf. Due to environmental and anthropogenic disturbances, especially due to coastal development, coral reef cover starts to decline, and conservation efforts were established to restore these systems which is consider as a habitat for about 25% of all marine species. Deployment of artificial reefs was one of the proposed approaches. In this study, temporal variation of fish abundance, diversity and biomass were investigated in three sites which included live, dead, and artificial reef sites. The effectiveness of two survey methods (BRUV and UVC) was assessed. Artificial reefs recorded the lowest fish species richness with only 13 taxa., while live coral site was the highest with 21 taxa recorded. However, this was associated with low abundance and relatively lower frequency of these species. The dead reef site had a lower species richness, with only 14 species recorded. The interaction of time and site variation was significant in the study at the artificial reef site only. Artificial reefs could expectance a rapid increase in fish abundance however this could come on the expenses of the community structure, the method variation was significant. The study showed UVC methodology has a significant and relevant advantage over BRUVs by providing estimates of the absolute abundances