Fisher William S
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1 Sabine Island Drive, Gulf Breeze, FL 32561, United States.
Ecol Indic. 2023 Mar 12;148:110117. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.110117.
A goal of coral reef management is to provide habitat and nursery areas for fish populations. This requires simple and reliable methods for characterizing biological and physical reef features that contribute to fish habitat. Most attempts to establish this relationship have been performed on small-scale, site-specific study areas where variability in fish populations and reef structure is limited and results may be insufficiently robust for extrapolation beyond those sites. Most studies also include geological structures, like ridges and rock formations that provide fish habitat but are not amenable to management action. A focus on the role of Scleractinia (stony corals) may better inform decisions aimed at improving fish habitat. Stony corals provide the structural foundation of coral reefs and are the target of numerous management actions. Data from three broad-area, multi-station reef surveys of fish and stony coral colonies were examined to identify correlations between fish population measures (density, taxa richness and biomass) and both biological (taxa richness and live surface area) and physical (number, size and structural complexity) attributes of scleractinian coral populations. Strongest correlations were found with physical coral features, particularly coral colony height. Characterizing this relationship will improve fishery management tools and support status and trend assessment of the worldwide decline in the physical stature of reefs.
珊瑚礁管理的一个目标是为鱼类种群提供栖息地和育苗区。这需要简单可靠的方法来描述有助于鱼类栖息地的生物和物理珊瑚礁特征。大多数建立这种关系的尝试都是在小规模、特定地点的研究区域进行的，那里鱼类种群和珊瑚礁结构的变异性有限，其结果可能不够稳健，无法外推到这些地点之外。大多数研究还包括地质结构，如为鱼类提供栖息地但不适合采取管理行动的山脊和岩层。关注石珊瑚的作用可能会更好地为旨在改善鱼类栖息地的决策提供信息。石珊瑚为珊瑚礁提供了结构基础，并且是众多管理行动的目标。对鱼类和石珊瑚群落的三次大面积、多站点珊瑚礁调查数据进行了研究，以确定鱼类种群指标（密度、分类丰富度和生物量）与石珊瑚种群的生物（分类丰富度和活表面积）和物理（数量、大小和结构复杂性）属性之间的相关性。发现与珊瑚的物理特征，特别是珊瑚群体高度的相关性最强。描述这种关系将改进渔业管理工具，并支持对全球珊瑚礁物理形态下降的现状和趋势评估。
