Catch organism assemblages along artificial reefs area and adjacent waters in Haizhou Bay

To better understand the community patterns mediated by connectivity in artificial reefs of coastal areas, it is necessary to understand the distribution and coexistence of organisms with artificial reefs area and adjacent waters. This study was conducted to examine main catches assemblages collected by trawls in Haizhou Bay, which included five habitats: the artificial reef area (AR), aquaculture area (AA), natural area (NA), estuary area (EA) and comprehensive effect area (CEA). The result shows that the total abundances of species in the five habitats were highly different (univariate PERMANOVA: P = 0.001, n = 24), but some species were also unique in their habitat (e.g. Scapharca subcrenata and Glossaulax didyma in AA). The body size distribution of specific species between habitats are different. For Collichthys lucidus, their body size in AR (14.63 cm ± 1.64 cm) and EA (14.3 cm ± 0.85 cm) is higher than that in NA (10.65 cm ± 1.64 cm), CEA (11.28 cm ± 1.85 cm) and AA (12.1 cm ± 0.43 cm), which indicates the potential connection from AR to EA mediated by their adult population. We concluded that artificial reefs in AR can be considered key components that have the ability to support species assemblages in adjacent habitats. This study has implications for the conservation and monitoring of species assemblages in coastal areas in terms of that artificial reefs can be applied in different stages of habitat protection implementation and in different combinations of scenarios.