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Comparación de refugios artificiales como hábitat para peces en el Caribe colombiano
Summary
This Colombian study compared artificial reef shelters made from coral rubble, bamboo, and PVC as fish habitat in the Colombian Caribbean, assessing how each material influenced fish species richness, abundance, and diversity. The use of PVC plastic structures as artificial reefs raises questions about leaching of plastic additives and microplastic generation in sensitive reef environments.
1. Historically, the world's coral reefs have been affected by the constant pressure of anthropogenic factors, which have caused a significant decrease in hydrobiological resources highly dependent on the system. 2. This work evaluated the effectiveness of artificial shelters built with coral rubbish, bamboo and PVC as fish habitat, in comparison to natural control formations on San Martin de Pajarales island-Rosario and San Bernardo National National Park, Colombian Caribbean. For this, monthly visual censuses were conducted between October 2017 and April 2018. The objectives of this study were: (1) to compare the temporal variation of specific richness, total abundance and diversity between artificial shelters and between artificial shelters and control formations, (2) define the composition of the fish assemblage present in the artificial shelters and in the control formations allowing a comparison and (3) identify the frequencies of occurrence, the predominant activities and the life histories and trophic guilds of the fish from the artificial shelters built. 3. The specific richness, total abundance and diversity of the fish associated with shelters built with coral rubbish are significantly different from the values of the same variables in the control formations, making it possible to reject the hypothesis that the fish assemblage (specific richness, total abundance and diversity) associated with artificial shelters built with coral rubbish is similar to the control formations more than the artificial shelters built with bamboo and PVC. 4. The artificial refuges that had greater similarity with the control formations in relation to the average values of specific richness, total abundance and diversity were those built with bamboo and PVC, the PVC is the least recommended because of the scenarios of microplastic pollution of the Caribbean and the world oceans. 5. The fish assemblage consisted of 32 species of fishes belonging to 16 families. When making the comparison between the control formations and the artificial shelters there was a difference of six species. 6. All the fish registered had a frequency of occurrence that oscillated between 4 and 63 percent in artificial shelters, with marked feeding activities and with a dominance of invertivores and herbivores.