A Comparison of Methods of Visual Census and Cryptobenthic Fish Collecting, an Integrative Approach to the Qualitative and Quantitative Composition of the Mediterranean Temperate Reef Fish Assemblages

The present research quantitatively compared the fish composition among two methods for non-cryptic benthic fish species and one method for cryptobenthic fish species for the first time for the Mediterranean temperate reef fish assemblage. A visual census of fishes was performed within a cylinder of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of marine science and engineering 2024-04, Vol.12 (4), p.644
Main Authors: Kovačić, Marcelo, Glavičić, Igor, Paliska, Dejan, Soldo, Alen, Valić, Zoran
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adriatic Sea
benthic fishes
Benthos
Biodiversity
Census
Censuses
Community composition
Comparative analysis
Composition
cryptobenthos
Cylinders
Fish
Fishes
integrative census
Littoral environments
Marine fishes
Methods
Reef fish
Reef fishes
SCUBA diving
Species composition
Species richness
survey methods comparison
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Summary:The present research quantitatively compared the fish composition among two methods for non-cryptic benthic fish species and one method for cryptobenthic fish species for the first time for the Mediterranean temperate reef fish assemblage. A visual census of fishes was performed within a cylinder of 4 m radius and within a cylinder of 2 m radius, while the cryptobenthic fishes were collected using a square of 1 m2 with anesthetic. The data and material were collected at fifty sampling points. The visual census methods together recorded 31 species, and the square with anesthetic method recorded 18 species. The quantitative comparison of methods of visual census and cryptobenthic fish collecting showed significantly different species richness, total fish abundance, and fish assemblage structure among methods. The applied methods were highly complementary. The cylinder of 2 m radius is well suited for epibenthic fishes and the cylinder of 4 m radius is reliable for hyperbenthic and benthopelagic fishes. Therefore, each of the methods well covered one of three components of ichthyobenthos (hyperbenthic, epibenthic, and cryptobenthic fishes), and all three methods together provided a far more complete assessment of fish species composition than any individual census method for the Mediterranean littoral benthic fishes.
ISSN:2077-1312
2077-1312
DOI:10.3390/jmse12040644