The influence of prey communities on fish species assemblages on artificial reefs in Puget Sound, Washington

Abstract

SynopsisResearch on eleven artificial reefs in Puget Sound, Washington examined the relative importance of reefproduced prey items to recreationally important reef fish species assemblages. The colonization of potential prey items, and fish species assemblages to ten artificial reefs were examined for the reefs first two to five years, and observations were conducted on an eleventh reef during its forty-ninth productive year. Fish species became more abundant, or were seen more frequently on reef habitats whose substrates had successionally developed from barnalces to algal mats. Fish species most affected by this successional change foraged heavily on organisms which were associated with reef algae. Starfish and nudibranchs, who preyed on the barnacles, were identified as the 'keystone' predators of these subtidal reef habitats.

Feeding Guilds Among Artificial-Reef Fishes in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

“…On older reefs, fishes predominantly fed on algalmat-associated species. Hueckel and Buckley (1987) also found that some fish species also fed on the surrounding sand epifauna. They concluded that artificial reef communities change over time.…”

“…Bohnsack (1989) reported that fishes associated with artificial reefs feed both on organisms associated with the reef structure and on the surrounding benthic communities. Although studies of artificial-reef fish foraging have been conducted (Davis et al, 1982;Hueckel and Stayton, 1982;Steimle and Ogren, 1982;Hueckel and Buckley, 1987;Ambrose and Anderson, 1990), the results provide no clear paradigm. It is still unknown where most of the prey organisms for reef-associated predatory fishes originate.…”

“…The various areas where fish feed in relation to artificial reefs in different environments have been discussed by several authors (Hawaii-Bailey- Brock, 1989;Washington-Hueckel and Stayton, 1982;Hueckel and Buckley, 1987;South CarolinaSteimle and Ogren, 1982). These studies found that adjacent, soft-bottom communities Hueckel and Buckley (1987) found that fishes became more abundant with time as artificial reefs aged, and that the attached benthic community increased in complexity and biomass. On older reefs, fishes predominantly fed on algalmat-associated species.…”

“…The stomachs were then removed. For fishes without a distinct stomach (e.g., Halichoeres bivittatus) the first quarter of the gut was considered the stomach (Hueckel and Stayton, 1982). On removal, a stomach fullness index (SFI) was determined for each stomach (0-5 highest subjective score).…”

Restauración del medio marino en la reserva marina de Tabarca (Alicante, España): estructura y variaciones temporales de la ictiofauna asociada al arrecife artificial

“…Probablemente, las especies más ligadas al proceso colonizador llegan buscando un hábi-tat apropiado como refugio, ya que la mayoría son de hábitos sedentarios, muy ligadas al sustrato, en un proceso similar al que propone Sale (1991), en el que las especies se reparten por el espacio habitable disponible mediante un proceso al azar. Tampoco debería descartarse el efecto de la atracción por el aumento de presas tanto de naturaleza íctica, como al Restauración del medio marino en la reserva marina de Tabarca (Alicante, España): estructura y variaciones temporales de la ictiofauna asociada al arrecife artifi cial 45 ÍNDICE aumento de presas ligado al desarrollo en complejidad y biomasa de la comunidad bentónica (Hueckel y Buckley, 1987), como se ha comprobado en algunos arrecifes artifi ciales (Foster et al, 1995;Herrera, 1998). Si bien, este efecto probablemente sea menor que el inducido por la complejidad del hábitat, ya que la mayor parte de las especies parece que se alimentan de los fondos blandos cercanos (Ardizzone et al, 1997a;Bortone y Nelson, 1995).…”