Quantitative characterisation of reef fish diversity among nearshore habitats in a northeastern New Zealand marine reserve

Abstract The influence of habitat type upon reef fish assemblage structures has been extensively reported, but there is still a need to quantitatively demonstrate the factors driving reef fish assemblages within and among habitats. This mensurative study examined diversity and community composition of reef fish assemblages between five habitats (shallow kelp, deep kelp, sand, algal turf, and sponge fiats) within the Cape Rodney‐Okakari Point Marine Reserve, northeastern New Zealand. Two contrasting sampling techniques, point count and timed search were used to quantify a range of species with different life history strategies and characteristics. Diversity generally decreased from kelp to sand habitats. Different habitat types displayed significantly different assemblages irrespective of the sampling technique used, as tested using two different multivariate techniques: constrained canonical analysis of principal coordinates and analysis of similarities (CAP, ANOSIM). Differences in depth between defined ...