Habitat Use and Niche Overlap of Nearshore Reef Fish Associated with Seagrass Habitats in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico

Ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management require data on essential habitats throughout individual species’ ontogeny as well as trophic dynamics of marine systems. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s fisheries-independent monitoring program has been providing relative abundance indices for stock assessments of estuarine-dependent species for over 30 years. In 2008, sampling efforts were expanded to include previously underrepresented polyhaline seagrass habitats to provide data on recruiting reef fishes. We used these data to investigate habitat selection and overlap in terms of location, abiotic, and habitat variables of six, co-occurring species: Gag, Lane Snapper, Gray Snapper, Black Sea Bass, White Grunt, and Hogfish. Patterns in habitat use were examined at both the regional and state level.  Our results show that these species vary in their level of overlap and in general, Hogfish are the least sympatric with these species and Gag and the snappers much more commonly co-occurring. These analyses provide critical information on essential fish habitat for recruiting juvenile reef fish and will subsequently be paired with diet analyses to determine trophic overlaps as well. Combined, the habitat and diet overlap data can inform ecosystem-level models and management in addition to explaining variance in annual abundance.