Fish assemblages across artificial and natural reefs in Puerto Rico

Manuel A. Nieves Ortiz

doi:10.15468/8ru86j

Fish assemblages across artificial and natural reefs in Puerto Rico

Citation

United States Geological Survey: Fish assemblages across artificial and natural reefs in Puerto Rico https://doi.org/10.15468/8ru86j accessed via GBIF.org on 2025-04-19.

Description

This database contains raw biological data from 12 sites around the main island of Puerto Rico, each belonging to one of four reef types: “accidental” (Muelle de Azucar, Crash Boat Beach, and Roosevelt Roads’ shipwreck), “restoration” (Escambron Beach, Condado Beach, Atolladora Beach), “transplanted” (Tres Palmas, Cayo San Cristobal, Bridges Beach), and “natural” (El Natural [Playa India], Maria’s Beach, Cayo Turrumote). The identity, abundance and size of reef fish and other commercially and ecologically important fish and megabenthic invertebrate, were characterized at these sites from spring 2018 to spring 2019. Sampling was done through Stationary Point Counting (SPC) (Bohnsack & Bannerot, 1986), were divers pivoted in a point within 1m of an artificial or natural reef structure, and visually monitored fish in a cylinder of 7.5 m radius for 10 minutes. SPC surveys occurred 3 to 4 times per site visit, with an average of three site visits per season. Effort was made to include both non-cryptic and cryptic species and to identify them to the lowest taxonomic level possible. Fish length estimations were recorded as the median of 5cm interval size classes. The cephalothorax length (measurement from the tip of the rostrum to end of the thorax), also known as carapace length (CL) in centimeters is used to report the size of lobsters (Panulirus spp., Scyllarides spp.) With the length-weight relationship information available in FishBase.org, biomass estimates were calculated for each species when information on the species was available; if not, the species were excluded from biomass estimates. “Adjacent habitat type” and “distance to adjacent habitat” were not recorded during the first sampling season (spring 2018) but was recorded for the remainder of the experiment.

Additional info

marine, harvested by OBIS

Taxonomic Coverages

Geographic Coverages

This dataset contains dive sites within the inner and middle shelves in the main island of Puerto Rico, located in the northeastern Caribbean Sea, Western North Atlantic Ocean. The municipalities that were sampled include: from the towns of Aguadilla (Northwest), Ceiba (East), Guanica (South), Lajas (South), Rincon (West), and San Juan (North). Sites in Lajas (Cayo San Cristobal and Cayo Turrumote) were the only two sites in mid-shelve environments; all other were located within the inner continental shelf.

Bibliographic Citations

Contacts

Manuel A. Nieves Ortiz
originator
position: Masters Student
University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez

Manuel A. Nieves Ortiz
metadata author
position: Masters Student
University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez

Abby Benson
publisher
position: Biologist
U.S. Geological Survey
email: albenson@usgs.gov
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4391-107X

Miguel G. Figuerola Hernández
processor
position: Technical Support Staff
Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System (CARICOOS) / Puerto Rico Coral Reef Monitoring Program and Outreach Coordinator, PR DNER

Manuel A. Nieves Ortiz
administrative point of contact
position: Masters Student
University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez

Juan J. Cruz-Motta
administrative point of contact
position: Laboratory Director
Magueyes Island Marine Laboratory, University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez
email: juan.cruz13@upr.edu