Artificial reefs monitoring in Khuzestan coastal waters

This research was done to study on communities' strucure of benthic animals' growth on artifitial reefs, constructed in Hendijan coastal waters in khozestan in Nort west Persian Gulf. The seasonal sampels of attached organisms were collected from spring to winter during 2010 year study.One station (D) in older and three stations (A, B, C) in newer reef site were selected.Random sampling was carriedout by using quadrat (25×25) via diving. During survey, the number of 59 species of attached animals belong to 13 animal groups, including, 9 species of cnidarian, 8 species of spoges, 7 species of Gastropoda, 8 species of Bivalve, 4 species of polychaet and 17 species of Crastacean were identified. In studied artifitial reef apoint of biomass, softcoral were dominant group which include 92% of total biota, and the species Plumarella sp. is the dominant species. However, apoint of abundance the species pisidia sp. from anomura crabs was the most abundant species especially in station A and D. Different kind of Cnidarian such as Dendronephthya sp., Sarcophyton sp. And Lobophyllia sp. was observed in station D for the first time. The polychates, Mollusk and some of crustacean and Echinodermata species were observed in lower abundance in comparision with previous studies. This results show that communities have been changed along time. According to MDS analysis, based on Bray-Curtis similarity, different stations presented seasonal variation based on identified species-biomass. Clustering analysis based on mean biomass indiffernt seasons explained that. Station D in 55%, station B in 75% and staton A and C in 80% similarity were Seperated. According to obtained results, there were not signifidant differences between station that can be caused by similarity in structural characteristics such as bottom slope and age of reefs. The mean abundance in spring was significantly high than other seasons. Which can be caused due to bioticfactos such as life cycle and reproduction season? In this research, fish communities accord to recorded information by visual consus and fisheries Traps arund the reefs, hare been increasing. In present study with increasing biomass in the biotic communities on artificial reefs enhancement of fish stock most be expected. These substrates can be reduced the pressure on destructed which is the opportunity for rehabilitation. In present study with increasing biomass in the biotic communities on artificial reefs enhancement of fish stock most be expected. These substrates can be reduced the pressure on destructed which is the opportunity for rehabilitation. The most frequent and abundant fish species was Epinephelus sp.. This species was presented in all stations and seasons. The other abundant fish species were Scolopsis sp.,Epinephelus coioides, Diplodus sargus and Neopomacentrue sp..

Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute

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