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The influence of prey communities on fish species assemblages on artificial reefs in Puget Sound, Washington

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Research on eleven artificial reefs in Puget Sound, Washington examined the relative importance of reef-produced prey items to recreationally important reef fish species assemblages. The colonization of potential prey items, and fish species assemblages to ten artificial reefs were examined for the reefs first two to five years, and observations were conducted on an eleventh reef during its forty-ninth productive year. Fish species became more abundant, or were seen more frequently on reef habitats whose substrates had successionally developed from barnalces to algal mats. Fish species most affected by this successional change foraged heavily on organisms which were associated with reef algae. Starfish and nudibranchs. who preyed on the barnacles, were identified as the ‘keystone’ predators of these subtidal reef habitats.

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  1. Washington State Department of Fisheries, 115 General Administration Building, Olympia, WA, 98504, U.S.A.

    Gregory J. Hueckel & Raymond M. Buckley

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  1. Gregory J. Hueckel
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  2. Raymond M. Buckley
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Hueckel, G.J., Buckley, R.M. The influence of prey communities on fish species assemblages on artificial reefs in Puget Sound, Washington. Environ Biol Fish 19, 195–214 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00005349

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00005349

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