Reef flattening effects on total richness and species responses in the Caribbean

The Journal of Animal Ecology
Steven P NewmanN V C Polunin

Abstract

There has been ongoing flattening of Caribbean coral reefs with the loss of habitat having severe implications for these systems. Complexity and its structural components are important to fish species richness and community composition, but little is known about its role for other taxa or species-specific responses. This study reveals the importance of reef habitat complexity and structural components to different taxa of macrofauna, total species richness, and individual coral and fish species in the Caribbean. Species presence and richness of different taxa were visually quantified in one hundred 25-m(2) plots in three marine reserves in the Caribbean. Sampling was evenly distributed across five levels of visually estimated reef complexity, with five structural components also recorded: the number of corals, number of large corals, slope angle, maximum sponge and maximum octocoral height. Taking advantage of natural heterogeneity in structural complexity within a particular coral reef habitat (Orbicella reefs) and discrete environmental envelope, thus minimizing other sources of variability, the relative importance of reef complexity and structural components was quantified for different taxa and individual fish and coral spe...Continue Reading

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Citations

Apr 28, 2016·PloS One·Vanessa Moura Dos ReisGilberto Menezes Amado-Filho
May 10, 2019·Emerging Topics in Life Sciences·M James C Crabbe
Mar 18, 2020·Aquatic Toxicology·Lisa A MayCheryl M Woodley
Mar 14, 2021·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Julien MocqDavid S Boukal
Jul 24, 2021·Marine Environmental Research·Jahson Berhane Alemu I, Jennie Mallela

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