Relationships between structural complexity, coral traits, and reef fish assemblages

With the ongoing loss of coral cover and the associated flattening of reef architecture, understanding the links between coral habitat and reef fishes is of critical importance. Here, we investigate whether considering coral traits and functional diversity provides new insights into the relationship...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Coral reefs 2017-06, Vol.36 (2), p.561-575
Main Authors: Darling, Emily S., Graham, Nicholas A. J., Januchowski-Hartley, Fraser A., Nash, Kirsty L., Pratchett, Morgan S., Wilson, Shaun K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abundance
Archipelagoes
Barrier reefs
Biodiversity
Biodiversity and Ecology
Biomass
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Carbonates
Community composition
Complexity
Coral reefs
Corals
Ecology, environment
Ecosystems
Environmental Sciences
Fish
Flattening
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Global Changes
Habitats
Life prediction
Life Sciences
Marine conservation
Oceanography
Reef fish
Reef fishes
Species richness
Structure-function relationships
Trophic structure
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Summary:With the ongoing loss of coral cover and the associated flattening of reef architecture, understanding the links between coral habitat and reef fishes is of critical importance. Here, we investigate whether considering coral traits and functional diversity provides new insights into the relationship between structural complexity and reef fish communities, and whether coral traits and community composition can predict structural complexity. Across 157 sites in Seychelles, Maldives, the Chagos Archipelago, and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, we find that structural complexity and reef zone are the strongest and most consistent predictors of reef fish abundance, biomass, species richness, and trophic structure. However, coral traits, diversity, and life histories provided additional predictive power for models of reef fish assemblages, and were key drivers of structural complexity. Our findings highlight that reef complexity relies on living corals—with different traits and life histories—continuing to build carbonate skeletons, and that these nuanced relationships between coral assemblages and habitat complexity can affect the structure of reef fish assemblages. Seascape-level estimates of structural complexity are rapid and cost effective with important implications for the structure and function of fish assemblages, and should be incorporated into monitoring programs.
ISSN:0722-4028
1432-0975
DOI:10.1007/s00338-017-1539-z