Rights statement: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Coker, D. J., Nowicki, J. P. and Graham, N. A. J. (2017), Influence of coral cover and structural complexity on the accuracy of visual surveys of coral-reef fish communities. J Fish Biol, 90: 2425–2433. doi:10.1111/jfb.13298 which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfb.13298/abstract This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
Accepted author manuscript, 101 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
| <mark>Journal publication date</mark> | 06/2017 |
|---|---|
| <mark>Journal</mark> | Journal of Fish Biology |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Volume | 90 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Pages (from-to) | 2425-2433 |
| Publication Status | Published |
| Early online date | 19/04/17 |
| <mark>Original language</mark> | English |
Using manipulated patch reefs with combinations of varying live-coral cover (low, medium and high) and structural complexity (low and high), common community metrics (abundance, diversity, richness and community composition) collected through standard underwater visual census techniques were compared with exhaustive collections using a fish anaesthetic (clove oil). This study showed that reef condition did not influence underwater visual census estimates at a community level, but reef condition can influence the detectability of some small and cryptic species and thismay be exacerbated if surveys are conducted on a larger scale.