Biogeographic characterization of fish communities and associated benthic habitats within the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary: sampling design and implementation of scuba surveys on the coral caps

The Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) is located in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico approximately 180 km south of Galveston, Texas. The sanctuary’s distance from shore combined with its depth (the coral caps reach to within approximately 17 m of the surface) result in limited exposure of this coral reef ecosystem to natural and human-induced impacts compared to other coral reefs of the western Atlantic. In spite of this, the sanctuary still confronts serious impacts including hurricanes events, recent outbreaks of coral disease, an increase in the frequency of coral bleaching and the massive Diadema antillarum die-off during the mid-1980s. Anthropogenic impacts include large vessel anchoring, commercial and recreational fishing, recreational scuba diving, and oil and gas related activities. The FGBNMS was designated in 1992 to help protect against some of these impacts. Basic monitoring and research efforts have been conducted on the banks since the 1970s. Early on, these efforts focused primarily on describing the benthic communities (corals, sponges) and providing qualitative characterizations of the fish community. Subsequently, more quantitative work has been conducted; however, it has been limited in spatial scope. To complement these efforts, the current study addresses the following two goals put forth by sanctuary management: 1) to develop a sampling design for monitoring benthic fish communities across the coral caps; and 2) to obtain a spatial and quantitative characterization of those communities and their associated habitats.

Engineering design and mechatronics: The schemebuilder project

The paper describes the development of a software design aid for use at the conceptual stage of engineering design. It is intended for use in the design of mechatronic products but has wider potential uses. Early approaches were based on function structures and tables of options and the system that evolved allows the assembly of schemes linked by matching their input and output ports. A database of components is provided which can be accessed via different indexes and the designer can easily create and compare alternative schemes at the concept stage. A bond graph approach is used to define the interconnections between components. This allows correct port matching but also provides for future development such as constraint propagation through the design and links to simulation tools. © 1993 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.