Offshore Oil & Gas (O&G) infrastructure creates artificial reef complexes that support marine communities in oceans. No studies have characterized the first wave of colonization, which can reveal information about habitat attraction and ecological connectivity. Here we used opportunistically-collected industrial Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to investigate fish and invertebrate colonization on a new North Sea O&G platform and trenching of an associated pipeline. We observed rapid colonization of fish communities, with increases in species richness (S), abundance (N), and diversity (H′) over the first four days (the entire study period). By contrast, there was minimal change in motile invertebrate communities over the survey period. After trenching, invertebrate S, N and H′ decreased significantly, whilst fish S, N and H′ increased. This study is the first to report on the pioneer wave of fish and invertebrate colonization on O&G infrastructure, thereby providing rare insight into formation of new reef communities in the sea. These short and opportunistic data are valuable in terms of showing what can be discovered from analysis of ‘pre-installation’ ROV footage of O&G structures, of which there are terabytes of data held by O&G companies waiting to be analyzed by environmental scientists.

中文翻译：

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在新的海上石油平台上表征第一波鱼类和无脊椎动物的定居

离岸石油和天然气（O＆G）基础设施创建了人造礁石综合体，为海洋中的海洋社区提供支持。尚无任何研究能对第一波定居浪潮的特征进行描述，第一波定居浪潮可以揭示有关栖息地吸引力和生态连通性的信息。在这里，我们使用机会收集的工业遥控车（ROV）在新的北海O＆G平台上调查了鱼类和无脊椎动物的定居情况，并对相关管道进行了挖沟。我们观察到鱼类群落快速定居，在前四天（整个研究期）中物种丰富度（S），丰度（N）和多样性（H'）增加。相比之下，在调查期内，活动无脊椎动物群落的变化很小。挖沟后，无脊椎动物S，N和H'显着下降，而鱼类S，N和H'增加。这项研究是第一个报告鱼类和无脊椎动物定殖在O＆G基础设施上的先驱浪潮的报告，从而为海洋中新的珊瑚礁群落的形成提供了难得的见识。这些简短的机会性数据对于显示可以从对O＆G结构的“预安装” ROV素材的分析中可以发现的内容而言非常有价值，其中O＆G公司持有的TB级数据正等待环境科学家进行分析。