Spatial and seasonal variation in demersal trawl fauna associated with a prawn fishery on the central Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Ordination analysis differentiated a "nearshore' group of sites from a "midshelf' and an "inter-reef' group. The composition of "inter-reef' fauna remained strikingly uniform below the 40m depth contour regardless of proximity to coral reef formations. Classification of the samples also revealed weakly separated "wet' and "dry' season temporal groupings, with the former characterized by higher abundances of several "nearshore' species. -from Authors