Impact of artificial reef deployment on reef fish movement and community assemblages

Artificial reefs provide critical habitat for fish in areas lacking benthic structure, yet our understanding of how artificial reefs function and develop is limited. Here, changes in fish community assemblages were monitored using baited remote underwater video (BRUV) surveys before and after a new artificial reef was deployed in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Movement of red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) and gray snapper (Lutjanus griseus) between nearby oil and gas platforms (n=3) and the new artificial reef was examined using acoustic telemetry, and residency was calculated for fish associated with both structure types. Fish community development at the artificial reef site was slow despite close proximity to existing habitat, and fish communities at the artificial reef site did not differ from control sites (unconsolidated substrate) one year after reef deployment. Residency of red snapper and gray snapper at the artificial reef was surprisingly low with most tagged fish emigrating r..., , # Impact of artificial reef deployment on reef fish movement and community assemblages

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.1ns1rn94z](10.5061/dryad.1ns1rn94z)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data_ReefFishMovementCommunityAssebmlages.zip contains the following compressed files. 

BRUV-richness-abundance.csv = file containing counts of species observed during BRUV sampling. Columns are: 

* Date: day the BRUV sample was recorded
* Season: moniker for the season the BRUV sampling occurred during
* Station: where the BRUV sample was recorded (C refers to control, R refers to reef, and P refers to platform)
* Type: structure type of the location where the BRUV sample was recorded
* Camera: whether the BRUV sample was recorded on a shallower (10m) or deeper (17m) camera
* Ariopsis_felis *... *Peprilus_paru: these columns are counts for each species that were observed during the BRUV sample
* TotalCount: total number of individuals observed during the BRUV sample
* TotalSpecies: tota...,