Habitat structure and recruitment in coral reef fishes

Abstract

Coral reefs provide a wide variety of often structurally complex habitats for fishes, whatever the scale of study. Fish select their habitat when they complete their larval stage, settle from the plankton and recruit to resident reef populations. Consistent relationships between fish assemblage structure and habitat structure only occur at the broad scale of the physiographic zone. At smaller scales two factors act to prevent any clear species segregation: local patches of reef habitat offer a diversity of cues (and are thus attractive to many potential recruits), and recruits are not always available to respond to the cues which do exist. There is also only a weak association between habitat structure and species richness. -from Author