Disturbance and distribution gradients influence resource availability and feeding behaviours in corallivore fishes following a warm-water anomaly.

ABSTRACT: Understanding interactions between spatial gradients in disturbances, species distributions and species' resilience mechanisms is critical to identifying processes that mediate environmental change. On coral reefs, a global expansion of coral bleaching is likely to drive spatiotemporal pulses in resource quality for obligate coral associates. Using technical diving and statistical modelling we evaluated how depth gradients in coral distribution, coral bleaching, and competitor density interact with the quality, preference and use of coral resources by corallivore fishes immediately following a warm-water anomaly. Bleaching responses varied among coral genera and depths but attenuated substantially between 3 and 47 m for key prey genera (Acropora and Pocillopora). While total coral cover de

SUBMITTER: MacDonald C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8654952 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature