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Diversity patterns of reef fish along the Brazilian tropical coast

2020; Elsevier BV; Volume: 160; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.105038

1879-0291

Maria Elisabeth de Araújo, Felipe Monteiro Gomes de Mattos, Felipe P. L. Melo, Laís de Carvalho Teixeira Chaves, Caroline Vieira Feitosa, Daniel Lino Lippi, Fabiana Cézar Félix‐Hackradt, Carlos Werner Hackradt, Jorge Luíz Silva Nunes, Zelinda M.A.N. Leão, Ruy Kenji Papa de Kikuchi, Antônio Vicente Ferreira, Pedro Henrique Cipresso Pereira, Cláudio Henrique Rodrigues de Macedo, Cláudio Luís Santos Sampaio, João Lucas Leão Feitosa,

Fish biology, ecology, and behavior

Causal mechanisms for broad-scale reef fish diversity patterns are poorly understood and current knowledge is limited to trends of species richness. This work compared the effects of ecological drivers on components of fish diversity across reefs spanning over 2.000 km of the tropical Brazilian coastline. A quarter of communities' diversity is accountable to common and dominant species, while remaining species are rare. Low-latitude sites were more diverse in rare species. Communities along the coast share common and dominant species, which display high densities across all reefs, but differ in rare species that show abundance peaks in particular reef morphotypes. The disproportionate distribution of rare species reveals a higher vulnerability of these communities to impacts and stochastic density fluctuations. Uneven conservation efforts directed to these morphotypes pose a threat to the maintenance of a paramount component of the reef fish diversity represented by rare species.