The primary deficiency of mangrove intertidal fish populations
as indicators of habitat quality is that even in systems relatively
protected from anthropogenic disturbances, like Rookery Bay, fish
abundance is highly variable, both spatially and temporally, as
reflected as a coefficient of variation CV [CV = (standard deviation/
mean abundance)×100]. High variability can necessitate
either large effect sizes and/or extensive sampling programs in
order to detect a response to perturbations