Effect on the juvenile fish distribution of artificial seagrass

In this study, it was investigated that whether the same effect could be seen or not in artificially created prairies, based on the knowledge that seagrass is feeding, hiding and living area for juvenile fishes according to previous studies. The study was carried out in two different seaside seagrass in the Yumurtalık district of Adana province. The stations were designed as seagrass - sand area, artificial seagrass - sand area. The artificial seagrass was modeled with polypropylene yarns and fixed to the ground at an average depth of 0.5m. Samplings with shore seine were made once in a week during 16 weeks of the experiment, in each station. Specimens were sorted according to their species and recorded, and live ones were released back to the water and dead ones were stored in a 10% formaldehyde solution. As a result of the study; The abundance(p<0.001) and diversity(p<0.001) observed in the first group were higher in the seagrass than in the sand area(p<0.001), and species diversity values(p<0.05) were higher in artificial seagrass than in the sand area. The artificial seagrass showed similar characteristics to natural seagrass according to the investigated data.