Artificial reef morphology: Relationship to fish recruitment and community structure

Rock and coral reef fishes are known to select their habitat, and selection oftentimes involves the settlement of pelagic larval stages. Thus, I examined the short-term temporal relationship between artificial reef morphology and the composition of warm-water reef fish assemblages 30 m offshore of the Town of Palm Beach, Florida. Correlations were found between reef height and total fish abundance and species richness. Reef height was also correlated with log transformed numbers of juveniles. Horizontal opening size showed an inverse correlation with species richness and a weak inverse trend with juvenile abundance. Furthermore, vertical openings were directly proportional to juvenile and total fish abundance, and to species richness. Piscivore abundance was weakly influenced by presence and dimensions of vertical crevices. Thus, artificial reefs with many varied-sized vertical crevices are most desirable for attracting juvenile warm-water reef fishes.