Biodiversity enhances reef fish biomass and resistance to climate change.

ABSTRACT: Fishes are the most diverse group of vertebrates, play key functional roles in aquatic ecosystems, and provide protein for a billion people, especially in the developing world. Those functions are compromised by mounting pressures on marine biodiversity and ecosystems. Because of its economic and food value, fish biomass production provides an unusually direct link from biodiversity to critical ecosystem services. We used the Reef Life Survey's global database of 4,556 standardized fish surveys to test the importance of biodiversity to fish production relative to 25 environmental drivers. Temperature, biodiversity, and human influence together explained 47% of the global variation in reef fish biomass among sites. Fish species richness and functional diversity were among the strongest pred

SUBMITTER: Duffy JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4896699 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature