REEF

[Ameer Abdulla]

Dear Leslie,

I agree with Michael's comments.  His suggestion of including nearby reefs
as control sites is a sensible as that would account for the spatial
variability within the system.  Surveying fish communities before and after
the project will account for temporal variability.  These ideas follows
Green's (1979; 1989; 1993) BACI, Before-After and  Control-Impact sampling
design, and Underwood's (1991; 1993) extension of the protocol in the
multiple BACI design.  The idea is that to conclude an impact is to detect
a significant (statistical) or important change in the difference between
indicator variables (e.g. species abundance or diversity, habitat
variables, etc.) in two places, the impact and the control site.  

Although adequate replication may be beyond the scope or logistics of your
REEF surveys, the overall framework I mentioned would be the minimum
required if you hope to detect any anthropogenic effects on fish
assemblages or other habitat variables. In your situation, you have the
advantage of prior notice of development and sufficient time for baseline
studies, both of which are luxuries in impact assessment and monitoring of
coastal developments.  

Here are some refs. that may be useful...Hope this helps a bit. Good luck.

Cheers,

Ameer 


Green, R.H. 1979. Sampling Design and Statistical Methods for
Environmental	Biologists.  Wiley, New York.

 -----.  1989. Power analysis and practical strategies 	for environmental
monitoring.  Environmental Research. Vol. 	50: 195-205

-----.  1993. Application of repeated measures designs in 	environmental
impact assessment and monitoring studies. 	Australian Journal of Ecology.
Vol. 18: 81-98.

Underwood. A.J. 1991. Beyond BACI: Experimental designs for detecting
human 	environmental impacts on temporal variations in natural
populations. 	Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater 	Research. Vol.
42: 569-587.

-----. 1993. The mechanics of spatially replicated sampling 	programmes to
detect environmental impacts in a variable 	world.  Australian Journal of
Ecology.  	Vol. 18: 99-116.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ameer A. Abdulla
Phd Candidate 
Marine Resource & Protected Area Management

CRC Reef Research Centre &
School of Tropical Environment Studies and Geography 
James Cook University of North Queensland
Townsville, QLD 4811
Australia

Centre Webpage: http://www.reef.crc.org.au/
School Webpage: http://www.tesag.jcu.edu.au/
E-mail: Ameer.Abdulla at jcu.edu.au
Office Tel: (07) 4781-5053         Intl. Tel: +61-7-4781-5053
Lab Tel:    (07) 4781-4587
Fax: 	    (07) 4781-4020         Intl. Fax: +61-7-4781-4020

     __  |\\     
   _/  \_|x\\   
  /         \\  
 |          |    
  \_..--.   /          
         ---     
          v


~~~~~~~
For directions on subscribing and unsubscribing to coral-list or the
digests, please visit www.coral.noaa.gov, click on Popular on the
menu bar, then click on Coral-List Listserver.