Repeated cyclone events reveal potential causes of sociality in coral-dwelling Gobiodon fishes.

ABSTRACT: Social organization is a key factor influencing a species' foraging and reproduction, which may ultimately affect their survival and ability to recover from catastrophic disturbance. Severe weather events such as cyclones can have devastating impacts to the physical structure of coral reefs and on the abundance and distribution of its faunal communities. Despite the importance of social organization to a species' survival, relatively little is known about how major disturbances such as tropical cyclones may affect social structures or how different social strategies affect a species' ability to cope with disturbance. We sampled group sizes and coral sizes of group-forming and pair-forming species of the Gobiid genus Gobiodon at Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia, before and after

SUBMITTER: Hing ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6124712 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature