Changes in Biodiversity and Functioning of Reef Fish Assemblages following Coral Bleaching and Coral Loss

By M. Pratchett, A. Hoey, S. Wilson, V. Messmer, Nicholas A. J. Graham. 2011

307 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Coral reef ecosystems are increasingly subject to severe, large-scale disturbances caused by climate change (e.g., coral bleaching) and other more direct anthropogenic impacts. Many of these disturbances cause coral loss and corresponding changes in habitat structure, which has further important effects on abundance and diversity of coral reef fishes. Declines in the abundance and diversity of coral reef fishes are of considerable concern, given the potential loss of ecosystem function. This study explored the effects of coral loss, recorded in studies conducted throughout the world, on the diversity of fishes and also on individual responses of fishes within different functional groups. Extensive (>60%) coral loss almost invariably led to declines in fish diversity. Moreover, most fishes declined in abundance following acute disturbances that caused >10% declines in local coral cover. Response diversity, which is considered critical in maintaining ecosystem function and promoting resilience, was very low for corallivores, but was much higher for herbivores, omnivores and carnivores. Sustained and ongoing climate change thus poses a significant threat to coral reef ecosystems and diversity hotspots are no less susceptible to projected changes in diversity and function.

Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1f27eb55746f5a98318eb603f0ace4ec31c6d09f

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In Ecology

In Global and Planetary Change

Citations in the corpus

Structural complexity mediates functional structure of reef fish assemblages among coral habitats (2017, background): “…were assigned traits from six categories relating to their diet, mean observed species body-size, mobility, time of activity, social grouping, and position in the water column ( ), as well as having demonstrable relationships with benthic variation (e.g., Pratchett et al. 2011; Nash et al. 2013).”
Herbivore cross‐scale redundancy supports response diversity and promotes coral reef resilience (2016, background): “Herbivorous fishes exhibit a range of responses following coral loss (Wilson et al. 2006), indicative of considerable response diversity within this group (Pratchett et al. 2011; Thibaut, Connolly & Sweatman 2011).”
Habitat degradation increases functional originality in highly diverse coral reef fish assemblages (2016, background): “…that small, sedentary, coral- dependent species that feed on small benthic or planktonic invertebrate prey are particularly susceptible to habitat degradation, while large mobile carnivores and herbivores are commonly less affected (Wilson et al. 2006, Graham et al. 2011, Pratchett et al. 2011).”