Regional heterogeneity in coral species richness and hue reveals novel global predictors of reef fish intra-family diversity.

ABSTRACT: Habitat heterogeneity shapes biological communities, a well-known process in terrestrial ecosystems but substantially unresolved within coral reef ecosystems. We investigated the extent to which coral richness predicts intra-family fish richness, while simultaneously integrating a striking aspect of reef ecosystems-coral hue. To do so, we quantified the coral richness, coral hue diversity, and species richness within 25 fish families in 74 global ecoregions. We then expanded this to an analysis of all reef fishes (4465 species). Considering coral bleaching as a natural experiment, we subsequently examined hue's contribution to fish communities. Coral species and hue diversity significantly predict each family's fish richness, with the highest correlations (> 80%) occurring in damselfish, b

SUBMITTER: Cox KD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8440613 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature