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ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil Advance Access originally published online on September 11, 2008
ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil 2008 65(9):1610-1619; doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsn145
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© 2008 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. Published by Oxford Journals. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Habitat use and the effect of shrimp trawling on fish and invertebrate communities over the northern Gulf of Mexico continental shelf

R. J. David Wells1, James H. Cowan, Jr.1 and William F. Patterson, III2

1 Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University, Energy, Coast, and Environmental Building, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
2 Department of Biology, University of West Florida, 11000 University Parkway, Pensacola, FL 32514, USA

Correspondence to R. J. D. Wells: tel: +1 409 740 4784; fax: +1 409 740 4787; e-mail: wellsr{at}tamug.edu.

Wells, R. J. D., James H. Cowan Jr, and William F. Patterson III. 2008. Habitat use and the effect of shrimp trawling on fish and invertebrate communities over the northern Gulf of Mexico continental shelf. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65: 1610–1619.

The goals of this study were to characterize habitat-specific fish and invertebrate community structure over sand, shell-rubble, and natural reef substrata, and to assess the effects of trawling on the sand and shell-rubble habitats and their associated communities during quarterly trawl surveys over a 2-year period. Fish and invertebrate communities differed significantly among habitat types [analysis of similarities (ANOSIM); Global R = 0.436, p < 0.001), and with respect to trawling exposure (ANOSIM; Global R = 0.128, p < 0.001). Habitat characteristics were quantified from video transects sampled with a remotely operated vehicle, and included percentage coverage of tubeworms, bryozoans, anemones, corals, and algae, significantly affecting fish community structure. Diversity indices differed among habitats, with the highest Shannon diversity (H') and Pielou's evenness (J') over shell-rubble, specifically non-trawled shell-rubble. In addition, higher values of H' and J' were found over trawled sand relative to non-trawled sand habitats. Length frequency distributions of several abundant fish species showed truncated size distributions over trawled and non-trawled habitats and were both habitat- and species-specific. The study describes habitat-specific differences in community structure, highlighting the differences between trawled and non-trawled areas on the northern Gulf of Mexico continental shelf.

Keywords: community structure, habitat, ROV, species diversity, trawling

Received 25 February 2008; accepted 4 August 2008; advance access publication 11 September 2008.


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