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Relationships between structural complexity, coral traits, and reef fish assemblages

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Abstract

With the ongoing loss of coral cover and the associated flattening of reef architecture, understanding the links between coral habitat and reef fishes is of critical importance. Here, we investigate whether considering coral traits and functional diversity provides new insights into the relationship between structural complexity and reef fish communities, and whether coral traits and community composition can predict structural complexity. Across 157 sites in Seychelles, Maldives, the Chagos Archipelago, and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, we find that structural complexity and reef zone are the strongest and most consistent predictors of reef fish abundance, biomass, species richness, and trophic structure. However, coral traits, diversity, and life histories provided additional predictive power for models of reef fish assemblages, and were key drivers of structural complexity. Our findings highlight that reef complexity relies on living corals—with different traits and life histories—continuing to build carbonate skeletons, and that these nuanced relationships between coral assemblages and habitat complexity can affect the structure of reef fish assemblages. Seascape-level estimates of structural complexity are rapid and cost effective with important implications for the structure and function of fish assemblages, and should be incorporated into monitoring programs.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Sally Keith for providing species lists for Indo-Pacific provinces. ESD was supported by a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship from the Cedar Tree Foundation, a Banting Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. NAJG was supported by the Australian Research Council and a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. Field work in the Seychelles was supported by the Seychelles Fishing Authority, Seychelles National Parks Authority, Nature Seychelles, and Global Vision International. We thank the reviewers and Editor for suggestions that substantially improved earlier versions of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, NY, 10460, USA

    Emily S. Darling

  2. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S 3B2, Canada

    Emily S. Darling

  3. Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK

    Nicholas A. J. Graham

  4. ARC Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

    Nicholas A. J. Graham & Morgan S. Pratchett

  5. IRD UMR 9190 MARBEC, IRD-CNRS-IFREMER-UM, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, 34095, France

    Fraser A. Januchowski-Hartley

  6. Centre for Marine Socioecology, Hobart, TAS, 7000, Australia

    Kirsty L. Nash

  7. Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, 7000, Australia

    Kirsty L. Nash

  8. Marine Science Program, Department of Parks and Wildlife, Kensington, WA, 6151, Australia

    Shaun K. Wilson

  9. Oceans Institute, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Shaun K. Wilson

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  1. Emily S. Darling
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  2. Nicholas A. J. Graham
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  3. Fraser A. Januchowski-Hartley
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  4. Kirsty L. Nash
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  5. Morgan S. Pratchett
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Correspondence to Emily S. Darling.

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Darling, E.S., Graham, N.A.J., Januchowski-Hartley, F.A. et al. Relationships between structural complexity, coral traits, and reef fish assemblages. Coral Reefs 36, 561–575 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-017-1539-z

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