Delayed recovery and host specialization may spell disaster for coral-fish mutualism.

ABSTRACT: Mutualisms are prevalent in many ecosystems, yet little is known about how symbioses are affected by ecological pressures. Here, we show delayed recovery for 13 coral-dwelling goby fishes (genus Gobiodon) compared with their host Acropora corals following four consecutive cyclones and heatwaves. While corals became twice as abundant in 3 years postdisturbances, gobies were only half as abundant relative to predisturbances and half of the goby species disappeared. Although gobies primarily occupied one coral species in greater abundance predisturbances, surviving goby species shifted hosts to newly abundant coral species when their previously occupied hosts became rare postdisturbances. As host specialization is key for goby fitness, shifting hosts may have negative fitness co

SUBMITTER: Froehlich CYM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10285627 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature