Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School 2016 The ffecE t of Artificial Light on the Community Structure and Distribution of Reef-Associated Fishes at Oil and Gas Platforms in the Northern Gulf of Mexico Victoria Anne Barker Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses Part of the Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons Recommended Citation Barker, Victoria Anne, "The Effect of Artificial Light on the Community Structure and Distribution of Reef-Associated Fishes at Oil and Gas Platforms in the Northern Gulf of Mexico" (2016). LSU Master's Theses. 3620. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/3620 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Master's Theses by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE EFFECT OF ARTIFICIAL LIGHT ON THE COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF REEF-ASSOCIATED FISHES AT OIL AND GAS PLATFORMS IN THE NORTHERN GULF OF MEXICO A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in The College of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences by Victoria A Barker B.S., University of South Carolina, 2013 May 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my academic advisor, Dr. James H. Cowan, Jr., for this incredible opportunity to work and study at LSU. During my time here, I have had access to incredible resources and the ability to share my results not only at LSU, but also at international conferences. I feel privileged to be selected as a Cowan lab student and have immensely enjoyed my time conducting offshore research with some of the kindest and most dedicated people I have ever met. I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Kenneth Rose and Dr. Kevin Xu, for their time and support over the course of my Masters. They served not only as committee members but also as excellent professors. My sincerest gratitude to Dr. James Geagan, Dr. Brian Marx, Stephen Potts, and David Reeves, who tirelessly assisted me with my statistics and never- ending coding projects. I am eternally grateful for Dave Nieland, the best lab manager/chum maker/fisherman one could ask for. He was always willing to lend an ear and has done more for the advancement of my degree than he could possible know. Further, this project would never have been completed without the unflagging assistance of Captain Thomas Tunstall and the crew of the Blazing 7. Offshore trips were never dull and I owe Thomas for wrestling every shark we brought on board! I was blessed to join a very tight knit lab group and my lab mates were not only my colleagues but also my closest friends. Thank you to Kristin Foss, my collaborator, office mate, and fellow Chilean traveler, for your kind words and constant support over the past three years. You are without a doubt the most prepared and hard working person I know! Thanks to Lizz Keller, my fellow Wine Walk Wednesday-er, for nights dressed ii up at charity banquets and for always throwing a fantastic tailgate. Thank you to Alayna Petre and Emily Reynolds for teaching me the ins and outs of offshore research and how to operate all of the software programs. A big thank you to Ashley Baer, Jackie McCool, Sarah Margolis, Kat Ellis, Mario Souza, and Haixue Shen for your help offshore and in the lab. Finally, a huge thank you to my family and friends who supported me throughout this lengthy endeavor. To Havalend Steinmuller, who was always there at the phone to keep me sane, I will never be able to thank you enough for being such an incredible friend during what was at times a challenging process. I know you’re going to do amazing things with your doctorate! To my family, I owe you the biggest debt of gratitude of all. You have always supported my dream of obtaining my Masters and have stuck by me through all that that decision entailed. Thank you for your love, support, and guidance. Funding was provided by the Louisiana Department of Fish and Wildlife and would not have been possible without their assistance. Oil and gas platforms were owned and operated by Apache Shelf, Inc., Fieldwood Energy LLC, and Arena Offshore, LP. This project could never have been completed without their support and access. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ ii LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. v LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vii ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTION ................................................................... 1 LITERATURE CITED ................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 2: CHARACTERIZATION OF COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AROUND ACTIVE AND DECOMMISSIONED OIL AND GAS PLATFORMS IN THE NORTHERN GULF OF MEXICO .................................................................................. 14 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 14 METHODS AND MATERIALS .................................................................................. 17 RESULTS ..................................................................................................................... 23 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................... 40 LITERATURE CITED ................................................................................................. 44 CHAPTER 3: SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION OF REEF- ASSOCIATED FISHES AROUND ACTIVE AND DECOMMISSIONED OIL AND GAS PLATFORMS IN THE NORTHERN GULF OF MEXICO ................................... 48 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 48 METHODS AND MATERIALS .................................................................................. 51 RESULTS ..................................................................................................................... 59 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................... 70 LITERATURE CITED ................................................................................................. 76 GENERAL SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS............................................................ 79 LITERATURE CITED ................................................................................................. 82 APPENDIX: SUPPLEMENTARY TABLES AND FIGURES ....................................... 84 VITA ................................................................................................................................. 90 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Platform demographics of the two active and three decommissioned platforms in the Eugene Island (EI) Oil and Gas Lease Block. Provided by BSEE (2015) and LDWF (2015)…………………………………...……………19 Table 2.2: List of species observed at unlit and lit oil and gas platforms………………..24 Table 2.3: Distance based linear model (DistLM) to show environmental parameters temperature (°C) and salinity (PSU) to explain the biotic data. Pseudo-F is a direct multivariate analog to Fisher’s F ratio used in traditional regression models and is used for testing the null hypothesis of no relationship. Models were calculated by selecting for Akaike information criteria (AIC) with a best selection procedure………………………………………………………………29 Table 2.4: Analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests for type, season, time of day, season by type interactions and time of day by type interactions for three diversity indices. Asterisks (*) denotes a significant difference (α = 0.05)…………...…..30 Table 2.5. Permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) source table comparing log(x+1) community structure of fishes within depth layers, seasons, time of day, and between type of structure. Asterisk (*) denotes significant effect (α=0.05). df= degrees of freedom……………………………..32 Table 2.6: Pair-wise tests from PERMANOVA for season by platform type; Asterisk (*) denotes a significant effect (α=0.05)………………………. ……………….33 Table 2.7: Similarity percentages (SIMPER) results for the species that contributed most to similarities between season and platform type interactions. Shown are average abundances of species within platform type, the contribution to the average within platform type by season similarity (Av. Sim), the average similarity/standard deviation (Sim/SD) ratio within platform type by season, and percent contributed by that species (Contrib %). Only the three most contributing species are shown. Spring = March, April, May, Summer = June, July, August, Fall = September, October, November, Winter = December, January, February………………………………………………………………...33 Table 2.8: Dissimilarity percentages (SIMPER) results for the species that contributed to the dissimilarity between