Samenvatting

The coral reef ecosystem provides important services such as tourism revenue, food, pharmaceutical products and coastal defence. Coral reefs are under a severe amount of threats such as pollution, overfishing and climate change. These threats result in a decrease of coral reefs and so a decrease in three- dimensional structure. The structural complexity of the coral reef ecosystem is crucial as it is often used as nursery and refuge for different living organisms. Artificial reefs are commonly used to increase the three-dimensional structure and increase suitable substrate for the recruitment of reef-building corals. AROSSTA (Artificial reefs on Saba and Sint Eustatius) uses three types of artificial reefs the layered cakes, the reef balls and the rock reef. These reefs are deployed on three different locations, one location on Saba (Big Rock Market) and two locations on Sint Eustatius (Twin Sisters and Crooks Castle). This research studies the habitat and nursery function for commercially and ecologically important species of each type of artificial reef.