For the octocorals, 11 genera belonging to the major
families Nephtheidae and Xeniidae, and four gorgonian
genera were significantly more abundant in PC than in
WT, whereas the two low encrusting or stolon-forming
genera
Clavularia
and
Briareum
had higher representa-
tion in WT but were missing or rare in PC (
Table 2
).
Finally,25 species of fish were likely to occur at higher
abundance in PC than in WT.These in cluded ten species
susceptible to fishing pressure, three coral-dependent
species(
Chaetodon aureofasciatus
,
C. lineolatus
,
C. plebius
),and two grazinยg herbivores. In contrast, 13 fish species had a high to moderate probability of occurring
at higher abundance in WT than in PC. These included
no coral-dependent species, only one species susceptible to fishing pressure and six grazing herbivores
(
Table 2
).
The percentages of algal, coral andfish taxa thatsig-
nificantly differed in abundances between regions are
summarized in
Fig. 6
. Among the macroalgae that
strongly differed in abundance between the regions,