Habitat Selectivity and Reliance on Live Corals for Indo-Pacific Hawkfishes (Family: Cirrhitidae)

Data from: Habitat Selectivity and Reliance on Live Corals for Indo-Pacific Hawkfishes (Family: Cirrhitidae) Coker et al. Surveys of abundance and habitat use for hawkfishes (family: Cirrhitidae) were recorded at six geographically distinct locations across both the Indian (Chagos, Aceh, Christmas Island (CI), and Western Australia (WA)) and Pacific (Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and Fiji) Oceans. A hierarchical sampling design was used to record abundance and habitat association with 3-6 replicate transects within each of 2-15 sites at each location (see Fig. 1 for details). All surveys were conducted at a water depth of 3-6 m, by divers using SCUBA between 08:00 and 17:00 hours during the Austral summer months. Habitat data was derived from replicate 20 m line intercept transects from the GBR and 30 m point intercept transects (PIT) from Aceh, Christmas Island, Fiji, and 50 m from Chagos (see Fig. 1 for replicate details). The substratum was recorded under uniform points (0.5 m intervals) for PIT. Where possible, live coral was recorded to species level, but subsequently pooled to the following nine habitat categories; Acropora, Pocillopora, Porites, Stylophora, other hard coral, dead coral (intact but dead coral colonies), pavement, non-coral and soft coral. To determine the abundance of hawkfishes, visual belt transects were conducted at each location. Transects ranged from 10 x 1m in the GBR to 30 x 1 m in Chagos, Aceh, Christmas Island, and Fiji and 50 x 2 m in WA (see Fig. 1 for replicate details). Habitat association of hawkfishes across the six locations were conducted simultaneously during the surveys to document patterns of microhabitat use. For each hawkfish encountered during the visual surveys, the substratum on which individuals were perching on or sheltering within, when first observed, was recorded. Substratum categories were the same as those used for the benthic surveys. For individual hawkfishes associating with live coral colonies in Christmas Island and Fiji, the size of individual fish (TL, nearest cm) and size of their host colony (maximum diameter: 0-20, 20-30, 30-40, > 50 cm) was estimated to examine if there was a relationship between fish size and coral colony size.