DOI: 10.5061/dryad.cjsxksnb0
title: Using standardized fish-specific autonomous reef monitoring structures (FARMS) to quantify cryptobenthic fish communities

description: 1. Biodiversity inventories and monitoring techniques for marine fishes
 often overlook small (&lt;5cm), bottom-associated (‘cryptobenthic’)
 fishes, and few standardized, comparative assessments of cryptobenthic
 fish communities exist. We sought to develop a standardized, quantitative
 survey method for cryptobenthic fishes that permits their sampling across
 a variety of habitats and conditions. 2. Fish-specific autonomous reef
 monitoring structures (FARMS) are designed to sample cryptobenthic fishes
 using a suite of accessible and affordable materials. To generate a
 variety of microhabitats, FARMS consist of three layers of stacked PVC
 pipes in three different sizes, as well as a bottom and top level of loose
 PVC-pipe fragments in a mesh basket. We deployed FARMS across a variety of
 habitats, including coral reefs, seagrass beds, oyster reefs, mangroves,
 and soft-bottom habitats across six locations (Hawai’i, Texas, Panama,
 Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Curaçao). 3. From shallow estuaries to coral
 reefs beyond 100 m depth, FARMS attracted distinct communities of native
 cryptobenthic fishes with strong site or habitat specificity. Comparing
 the FARMS to communities sampled with alternative methods (enclosed
 clove-oil stations on coral reefs in Panama and oyster sampling units on
 oyster reefs in Texas) suggests that FARMS yield a subset of cryptobenthic
 species representative of those present on local coral and oyster reefs.
 While FARMS yield fewer individuals per sample and are restricted to
 cryptobenthic species, they are efficient sampling devices relative to the
 sampled area. 4. We demonstrate that FARMS represent a useful tool for
 standardized collections of cryptobenthic fishes. While natural substrata
 are bound to yield more mature communities with a larger number of
 individuals and wider range of specialist species, the potential to deploy
 and retrieve FARMS in turbid environments, beyond regular SCUBA depth, and
 where fish collections using anesthetics or ichthyocides are forbidden
 suggests that they are a valuable complementary technique to survey fishes
 in aquatic ecosystems. Deploying FARMS in locations and habitats where
 cryptobenthic fish communities have not been studied in detail may yield
 many valuable specimens of unknown or poorly known species.
description: This dataset contains the raw data obtained from Fish-specific
 Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (FARMS), which were deployed to
 sample communities of cryptobenthic fishes in a standardized, quantitative
 fashion. The units were deployed in five locations (Brazil, Panama,
 Hawaii, Saudi Arabia, and Texas) for which data were formally analyzed, as
 well as in Curaçao, for which no formal raw data was collected (kjust
 anecdotal observations). FARMS consist of several stacked levels of
 horizpontally mounted PVC pipes to provide shelter for small,
 bottom-dwelling fishes. As such, they offer a useful avenue for sampling
 cryptobenthic fishes in habitats or locations where other sampling methods
 are not possible. The abstract of the paper that these data underpin is
 pasted below.