If You Build It, Will They Come? An Environmental DNA Assessment of Fish Assemblages on Artificial Reefs in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

Globally, estuarine and marine fisheries have declined over the past century, and a variety of approaches have been employed in an attempt to improve fisheries, including the development of protected areas, implementation of catch regulations, hatchery stocking, and habitat augmentation. The focus of this study was to assess the impact of the introduction of artificial reefs on the fish assemblages in the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM). Unfortunately, assessing the success of artificial reefs has been problematic due to the high turbidity of the region and the difficulty of using traditional sampling gears to assess species diversity at reefs. To accomplish this, we gathered environmental DNA metabarcode data (12S) to assess the impact of reef age (1-19 years), construction material (limestone, concrete, shell, and oil and gas), and season on the fish assemblages at nine artificial reefs in the nGOM. The results indicate higher species richness at reefs versus paired control sites as well as differences between seasons, reef materials, and reef positions. Our results suggest that this technique is a viable method of monitoring ray-finned fish species on artificial reefs and can provide baseline information on the fish assemblages associated with artificial reefs in the nGOM.

Putting eDNA to the test: A field comparison of eDNA metabarcoding to established protocols for assessing biodiversity in Missouri's Ozark Highland streams

“…Numerous studies have now employed eDNA sampling to examine fish assemblages in various aquatic systems (e.g., García‐Machado et al., 2021; Krolow et al., 2022; Sales et al., 2021). Overall, the use of eDNA methods to quantify fish assemblage structure provides a more complete picture of assemblage composition and a more complete understanding of assemblage dynamics across drainage systems.…”