Acknowledgements

We would like to extend our thanks to the National Council of Science and Technology for the support given to the realization of several projects in which this field work is included. Likewise, we thank the Marine Secretariat and the fishermen of several cooperatives, for the transfer of personnel and students to the different reefs and to all the people and institutions that contributed resources, time, and knowledge to carry out this research.

analysis leads to effectively recognizing the quantitative differences between the different zones. It extracts subjective considerations and discovers the importance of the ecological attributes identified in the field. However, in some cases the factors that originate the distribution patterns are not clearly discovered, since the analysis conducted suggests that significant changes with the depth occurs in the populations and shows that the different parts of the same reef system can be subjected to different pressures and combinations in the selection process, even in physiographical areas

The affinities between the sites showed strong identities toward identifying areas with particular characteristics such as windward, leeward, and the reef ridge; however, the inclusion of some site of the reef plain in these groups can be caused by the depth and the type of biotope that develops there (availability of free substrate, coral fragments, etc.) as happens in other reef sites [60]. Chinchorro Bank presented a greater number of groupings, showing particular areas with strong characterization, where slight changes in some parameters is sufficient for the index to detect and separate them; Alacranes gathers more sites in its clusters, which would allow to think that their affinities are maintained in a larger area.

In stable ecological systems, it is possible to recognize the dynamic state in which all the interactions and variations of a community are centered and nullified at a point of equilibrium to which all the components of the community are directed after a disturbance, allowing the community to be recognized as an entity based on its attributes [61–63], which are the total abundance of species, the total abundance of the dominant species, the biomass of the community, and the composition of species [64, 65]. With the analysis of Main Coordinates, it's possible to identify a community for the species that most influence its community spatial structure [66]; however, this community could present different points of stability, in which the dominance of different species is present, which they present specific equilibrium points, providing different levels of resistance to disturbances, as could create the differences between windward and leeward levels. In both reefs and analysis strategies, the species that takes advantage of the largest amount of resources for its benefit and consequently is the most dominant is Orbicella annularis, which is similar to that reported for the Netherlands Antilles [67], on both reefs was a species that separates from any grouping, being more evident in Chinchorro Bank. However, in areas with a certain degree of disturbance, the scheme changes dramatically, and other species replace O. annularis in its dominance. In the first case, when solid substrate is available, the gorgonians are those that have more aggressiveness and in the second when missing a solid substrate, the group of sponges has some advantage. In fact, these data confirm what was partially found by other research [68–70] who defined areas or biotopes with strong ecological differences. Coral reefs in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico have a similar coral biota. Nevertheless, there is a reduction in the number of common Scleractinian coral species from the Alacranes reef to Chinchorro Bank. Coral species richness, however, does not seem

related to the frequency and intensity of disturbance by the wave.

Lagoon Environments Around the World - A Scientific Perspective

4.3 Spatial species distribution

to decrease drastically as it does with gorgonians [71].

The conclusions of this research are as follows:

• The two lagoons have different dynamics.

5. Conclusions

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### Lagoon Environments Around the World - A Scientific Perspective

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Callyspongia vaginalis (Lamarck, 1814)

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Species

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Ectyoplasia ferox (Duchassaing & Michelotti,

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24 Ircinia sp. Nardo, 1833

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corals

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Dichocoenia stokesii Milne Edwards & Haime,

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Colpophyllia natans (Houttuyn, 1772)

Agaricia tenuifolia Dana, 1848

Agaricia agaricites (Linnaeus, 1758)

Millepora complanata Lamarck, 1816

Millepora alcicornis Linnaeus, 1758

Xestospongia sp. Laubenfels, 1932

Neopetrosia carbonaria (Lamarck, 1814)

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Mycale Laevis (Carter, 1882)

Haliclona tubifera (George & Wilson, 1919)

Ianthella sp. Gray, 1869

Dasycladus sp. C. Agardh, 1828

Cliona delitrix Pang, 1973

Chondrilla nucula Schmidt, 1862

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Lagoons Reefs of Alacranes Reef and Chinchorro Bank: Ocean Reef of Mexican Atlantic

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88662

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 35

Appendix

