Decadal shifts in traits of reef fish communities in marine reserves.

ABSTRACT: Marine reserves are known to impact the biomass, biodiversity, and functions of coral reef fish communities, but the effect of protective management on fish traits is less explored. We used a time-series modelling approach to simultaneously evaluate the abundance, biomass, and traits of eight fish families over a chronosequence spanning 44 years of protection. We constructed a multivariate functional space based on six traits known to respond to management or disturbance and affect ecosystem processes: size, diet, position in the water column, gregariousness, reef association, and length at maturity. We show that biomass increased with a log-linear trend over the time-series, but abundance only increased after 20 years of closure, and with more variation among reserves. This difference is

SUBMITTER: Hadj-Hammou J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8648868 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature