Long-term changes of fish assemblages associated with artificial reefs off the northern coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract

Summary Changes in fish assemblages associated with artificial reefs 5‐km offshore (Southeast Brazil) were assessed. Bottom gillnets were used for 1 month per year for up to 15 years after the artificial reef had been established. Totals of 552 fishes were caught, with Chloroscombrus chrysurus and Conodon nobilis the dominant species and Scianidae the richest family. Species richness, abundance and biomass varied significantly with time, increasing gradually for several years but decreasing thereafter. The same unimodal response was recorded for abundance and biomass of planktivorous and invertivorous fishes and for Haemulidae, suggesting that this family accounted for most of the temporal variations recorded per species richness and CPUE values. The abundance and biomass of sharks decreased gradually after the first year but increased in the 15th year. While these variables increased steadily toward an apparent stable level in the later part of the study for Scianidae and Ariidae, they decreased linearly with time for Carangidae. Fish use of the artificial reefs may be modulated by a continuous species turnover, since there was no single species recurring throughout the surveys. This study stresses the importance of long‐term assessments of artificial marine reefs in order to incorporate the effects of successional patterns of fish colonization into management actions.

Functional traits unravel temporal changes in fish biomass production on artificial reefs

“…The contrasted patterns detected for benthic and pelagic piscivores also demonstrated that species diet must to be considered together with their habitat preferences. This can explain why ambiguous patterns were identified in other AR systems when piscivorous species were pooled (Neves dos Santos and Zalmon, 2015). Similarly, because species with significant responses to AR deployment are mainly sedentary with narrow distributional range, we should ask if the use of…”

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

“…2015). In many cases, researchers have had to take targeted gear approaches to sample a subset of the fishery associated with these structures (Neves dos Santos and Zalmon 2015; Bollinger and Kline 2017; Streich et al. 2017).…”

“…Four different reef types were sampled in this study: (1) concrete rubble consisting of fragmented concrete, (2) limestone reefs comprising piles of limestone fragments/chunks, (3) human-made shell reefs consisting of oyster shells, and (4) oil and gas reefs consisting of metal supports from derelict structures. Each paired control site was located 500 m adjacent to its paired reef following the recommendation of Neves dos Santos and Zalmon (2015), who analyzed fish communities near artificial reefs to determine the relationship between distance (0-300 m) from the reef and species richness and abundance. They noted significant differences (lower abundances and lower species richness) in fish communities located 50-300 m from the reefs.…”

Could artificial reefs increase access to estuarine fishery resources? Insights from a long-term assessment

“…Despite the use of ARs as fishery production site (Leitão, 2013;Rouse et al, 2018) and the increasing knowledge about the design of artificial habitats (Bortone et al, 2000;Kim et al, 2016;Smith et al, 2016), many issues regarding the performance and fishing capacity of ARs remain poorly understood. These issues are even less studied in coastal zones near estuarine systems, especially in tropical seas, despite the worldwide ecological and economic importance of estuaries and the potential of ARs for enhancing fishery resources (Folpp et al, 2013;Lowry et al, 2014;Santos and Zalmon, 2015;Becker et al, 2017;Taylor et al, 2018). Some community descriptors, such as fish abundance, species richness biomass and diversity, are often used as predictors of fishing productivity related to artificial structures (Rouse et al, 2018;Streich et al, 2018).…”

“…Since intra-annual changes in the composition and structure of fish assemblages are common, surveys conducted for the long-term assessment of ARs should cover different seasons, especially in tropical estuarine areas, wherein environmental disturbances influence fish attraction (Santos and Zalmon, 2015). Surprisingly few studies have addressed the seasonal changes in fish attraction over extended periods (Ribeiro et al, 2008;Lowry et al, 2014;LeClair et al, 2016;Becker et al, 2017;Taylor et al, 2018), considering that the spatial and temporal associations of fish from sites enhanced with artificial structures versus reference sites is crucial to understand how ARs can be integrated within a broader local fisheries plan (Becker et al, 2018;Lima et al, 2019a).…”