ASSESSING RESIDENT FAUNAL ASSEMBLAGE SIMILARITY BETWEEN RESTORED AND NATURAL OYSTER REEFS Keith Walters 1 and Loren Coen 2 1 Marine Science Department, Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC 2 Marine Resources Research Institute, SCDNR, Charleston, SC

Possible Success Metrics OYSTER REEF RESTORATION GOAL MetricHabitatShorelineWQHarvestingBroodstockEducation Reef Condition DensityXXXXXX Size Freq.XXXXX? Reef SizeXXXXX Associated FaunaXXX Reef ArchitectureXX?XX Landscape FragmentationXX?XX SalinityXXXXX DOX subXXXX ChlX TSS/TurbidityXX TemperatureXXX

Associated Fauna Properties  Species Richness  Species Composition

The General Question (Species Presence/Absence & Abundance) NaturalRestored SPECIESSPECIES A00 B06 C100 D2419 E365

Analytic Approaches  Analyses of “Composition” Multivariate ANOVA (MANOVA) Co-occurrence (EcoSim) Complex Samples GLM (CSGLM)  Analyses of Similarity Clustering & Ordination Permutation Analyses ANOSIM (PRIMER) PERMANOVA

“Composition” Caveats  MANOVA Data limitations Replicates limit dependent variables Assumptions Independence Normality Multivariate homogeneity Model approach Failing to reject null hypothesis

“Similarity” Caveats Species SiteABC Metric Distance Properties 1) x 1 = x 2 → d(x 1, x 2 ) = 0 2) x 1 ≠ x 2 → d(x 1, x 2 ) > 0 3) d(x 1, x 2 ) = d(x 2, x 1 ) 4) d(x 1, x 2 ) + d(x 2, x 3 ) ≥ d(x 1, x 3 ) Orloci’s Paradox

The Specific Question  Are the resident faunal communities on natural and constructed intertidal oyster reefs compositionally similar? When does the resident species composition of constructed reefs approach that of natural reefs? Mean Resident Species Compositional Similarity Between Natural and Constructed Reefs at Two Locations in Charleston, SC

Experimental Design  Locations = 2 Toler’s Cove & Inlet Creek  Treatments = 2 Natural & Constructed  Replicate Reefs = 3 ca. 24 m 2 each  Subsamples = 3 Sample area = 0.14 m 2  Sampling Dates = 1996 to 2001, Jan. & July

The Data (Resident Reef Taxa) Total Abundance Common Taxa(January) Boonea impressa7,409 Brachidontes exustus3,764 Eurypanopeus depressus1,107 Eurytium limosum65 Geukensia demissa4,072 Mercenaria mercenaria1 Neopanope sayi7 Panopeus herbstii860 Panopeus obesus228 Petrolisthes armatus76 Xanthids (juveniles)1,768

MANOVA  Inlet, all taxa  Inlet, partial taxa Effect1996p1998p Trt4.70n.s.2.17n.s. Reef(Trt)2.04n.s.1.13n.s. Effect1996p2001p Trt62.6< <0.05 Reef(Trt)2.40< <0.008

Co-Occurrence (  Inlet, all taxa  Inlet, partial taxa Effect1996p1998p Constructed1.75>< ><0.001 Natural1.60>< ><0.001 Effect1996p2001p Constructed2.50n.s.0.32n.s. Natural0.00n.s.0.57n.s.

ANOSIM (  Inlet, all taxa  Inlet, partial taxa Effect1996p1998p Trt-.28n.s.0.00n.s. Reef(Trt)0.69< <0.005 Effect1996p2001p Trt0.14n.s.-.06n.s. Reef(Trt)1.00n.s.0.26<0.04

PERMANOVA (  Inlet, all taxa  Inlet, partial taxa Effect1996p1998p Trt1.31n.s.3.07<0.02 Reef(Trt)3.56< <0.001 Effect1996p2001p Trt15.7< <0.004 Reef(Trt)1.48n.s.3.08<0.002

Conclusions  No easy analytic approach to examine community compositional change over time given complex experimental designs.  Taxa pool determination can effect results of most analyses. All TaxaPartial Taxa Analysis MANOVAn.s. <0.001<0.05 ECOSIMn.s. ANOSIMn.s. PERMANOVAn.s.<0.02<0.001<0.004