Nieves Ortiz, Manuel A.

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    Fish assemblages across artificial and natural reefs in Puerto Rico: Implications for management
    (2020-12-11) Nieves Ortiz, Manuel A.; Cruz Motta, Juan J.; College of Arts and Sciences - Sciences; Appeldoorn, Richard S.; Weil, Ernesto F.; Ruiz Torres, Hector J.; Department of Marine Sciences; Alfaro Lozano, Mónica
    When accompanied with well-informed management actions, active restoration strategies such as coral gardening and deployment of artificial reef structures can help mitigate negative effects of human impact on fish assemblages associated to natural reefs. However, ecological patterns of variation of fish assemblages associated with artificial reefs are poorly understood. From mid-April 2018 to mid-June 2019, we compared fish assemblages associated to one of four types of reef structures: natural reefs (NR), transplanted reefs (TR; i.e., Acropora palmata colonies), concrete modules or restoration reefs (RR), and accidental reefs (AC; submerged docks and shipwrecks) across twelve sites around Puerto Rico. Response variables were abundance, biomass, and number of species and these were correlated with potential environmental factors responsible for the observed patterns of spatial and temporal variation in fish assemblages. Despite natural seasonal fluctuations, differences in fish assemblages between reef types were generally greater than differences among sites, although less obvious between TR and NR. Based on these results, and on the assumption that the general aim of artificial reef deployment is to produce fish assemblages that mimic natural reefs, there need to be additional management strategies tailored to site-specific or reef-specific goals and needs. Our study highlights the importance of multivariate statistics to recognize patterns of spatial and temporal variation at the smallest spatial scales, understand ecosystem function, and improve the effectiveness of management actions including active restoration strategies like coral gardening and creation of artificial reef habitats.