Community patterns of coral-associated decapods

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Abstract
Community patterns of abundance and co-occurrence are described for decapod crustaceans associated with the coral Pocillopora damicornis in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Most reef flank (deep) corals have lower densities of decapods than reef flat (shallow) corals. This difference affects the species-area relation for the 2 habitats. Seasonally, abundance is highest in June and April, lowest in Aug. and Jan. The species-area relation does not differ greatly through time. Most coral heads support fewer species than expected if the individuals from a sample are distributed randomly among heads. Principal components analysis did not reveal any distinct patterns of covariation among species'' densities. Likewise, pairwise comparisons between common species revealed few, if any, significant correlations of abundance or co-occurrence. These results suggest a considerable degree of independence in the density and occurrence of decapod species associated with Pocillopora.