Are abundance patterns of marine species related to habitat variation at multiple scales?
If marine nursery habitats are nested structures, distribution and abundance patterns for fish and invertebrates should be related to multiple environmental features that vary at different spatial and temporal scales. Recent field surveys using large spatial extents and spatially nested designs show significant variation in densities of juvenile fish and invertebrates multiple spatial scales (Connell 1985, Caselle and Warner 1996, Caselle 1999, Booth et al. 2000, Etherington and Eggleston 2000, Eagle et al. 2001). Densities of coral reef fishes vary substantially and sometimes consistently among barrier reefs at coarse spatial scales (10s of km apart) and among specific habitat types within reefs at finer spatial scales (1-10’s of meters apart) in Australia and the Carribean (Caselle and Warner 1996, Booth et al. 2000). Similar patterns have been observed for temperate fishes as well (Tupper and Boutilier 1997, Pihl et al. 2000, Garcia-Charton and Perez-Ruzafa 2001). Along the coast of
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