The marine environment off the California coastline supports a diverse ichthyofauna consisting of northern, cold water (Oregonian) and southern, warm water (San Diegan) fish species as well as Panamic species primarily from Cortez Province. The analysis presented here represents the first attempt at a coastwide synthesis of information about all California marine fish species and their habitats. This chapter presents a quantitative classification of marine habitats off California, based on the affinities of their fish assemblages. It presents a quantitative classification of fish species...

The marine environment off the California coastline supports a diverse ichthyofauna consisting of northern, cold water (Oregonian) and southern, warm water (San Diegan) fish species as well as Panamic species primarily from Cortez Province. The analysis presented here represents the first attempt at a coastwide synthesis of information about all California marine fish species and their habitats. This chapter presents a quantitative classification of marine habitats off California, based on the affinities of their fish assemblages. It presents a quantitative classification of fish species according to habitat affinity. It also describes the general patterns of diversity within the various habitat types and attempts to explain them.