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Recruitment and habitat use of reef fishes on low and high diversity coral reefs in the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico
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2009
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Alternative Title:Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council final report administrative cooperative agreement NA07NMF4410115, October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2009
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Description:"This project builds on a previous effort to characterize reef fishes and corals on low diversity, mid and outer shelf banks (Sonnier, McGrail) in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico (Gulf). Previously, we investigated recruitment patterns through fine-scale surveys of low diversity reefs and collected new recruits off experimental settlement structures. The aim of the current work was to expand the scope of our recruitment survey to include both low and high diversity coral reef habitats in the northwestern Gulf. Specifically, we quantified the density and diversity of juvenile reef fishes present on two low diversity (Sonnier, Stetson) and two high diversity (East and West Flower Garden) banks. This work was originally planned for the summer of 2008; however, our first two scheduled trips on the RV MANTA (new vessel of the NOAA Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary) were cancelled by NOAA due to mechanical problems. In response, our survey period was changed to September when another vessel (RV Fling) was available. Unfortunately, due to Hurricane Ike, which caused the Galveston Campus of TAMUG to close for the entire fall semester, this vessel was no longer available for research during the planned survey period. In response, all surveys were conducted in the summer of 2009 and the sampling effort (number of cruises) and temporal scope increased because we were able to combine vessel time from 2008 and 2009"--Project summary.
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Rights Information:Public Domain
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Compliance:Library
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