Realm: Marine
Climate: Tropical
Biome: Tropical Coral
Central latitude: 15.955960
Central longitude: -87.219240
Duration: 8 years, from 2012 to 2019

9755 records

115 distinct species

Across the time series Scarus iseri is the most frequently occurring species

Methods

Surveys were conducted at seven fringing coral reef sites around Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras (see S1 Table for GPS locations). Utila is located at the southern end of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. Two sites (The Maze and Spotted Bay) were located on the islands exposed north shore, and five were located on the more sheltered south shore (Stingray Point, Little Bight, Black Coral Wall, Coral View and Lighthouse Reef) (Fig 1). On the south shore the reef slope reaches a maximum depth of 40-60m where the seabed levels off stretching to mainland Honduras. South shore MCEs tend to be extensive patch reef systems, with large areas of reef separated by areas of sand. On the north shore of Utila, the reef slope continues to >100m. Shallow reefs at south shore sites consist of a spur and groove system, whereas shallow reefs on the north shore are on steeper reef walls. Field Permits were issued by the Instituto de Conservacion Forestal (ICF), Honduras. Transects were conducted using a diver-operated stereo-video system (SVS; SeaGIS, Melbourne, Australia), composed of two Canon HFS21 high definition video cameras (see following for system overview: [2830]). SVS allows fish communities to be recorded more quickly in water than traditional underwater visual census (UVC) technique, and for fish length to be estimated more accurately. Biomass calculations are then made based on estimated length. At each site, transects were conducted at 5m, 10m and 15m. Transects were 50m long following the reef contour, with a 10m interval between replicates, and were surveyed by an SVS operator and a second diver responsible for distance measurement. To minimise potential disturbance to the fish community while cameras were set to Caribbean Shallow to Mesophotic Reef Fish Community Structure. Biomass unit = g. Detailed methods can be found at Andradi-Brown et al. (2016) http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0156641

Citation(s)