Seasonality of Fish Juvenile Community Structure and Diversity in a Tropical Seagrass Meadow of Watamu, Kenya

Seagrass are important marine habitats that function as nursery grounds for juvenile fish. Human activities and other natural factors have contributed to their decline, this has compromised role nurseries, specifically in non-continuous patchy seagrass beds. In study, fish abundance from tropical beds of Watamu were examined, while testing the hypothesis cover seasonality influenced abundanceand diversity. Two sampling stations identified, Blue Lagoon (WBL) Beach (WB), based on cover, sampled a period 10 months included two south-east monsoon (SEM) north-east (NEM) seasons. Monthly samples collected by seining within shallow WBL WB. A total 31 families obtained, dominant taxa being Lutjanidae Siganidae. Seasonal interannual variability was observed over years (p<0.05); year 1 recorded higher than 2, during SEM. 2 mean NEM when compared Chlorophyll (p<0.05) salinity found significantly influence abundance.