Recovery from disturbance of coral and reef fish communities on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Recovery from disturbance of coral and reef fish communities on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia
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DOI：
10.3354/meps07657
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发表时间：
2008-01-01
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Delean, S.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Emslie, M. J.;Cheal, A. J.;Delean, S.
珊瑚礁持续且日益受到急性干扰事件的影响，这些事件经常导致活珊瑚覆盖面积减少，同时对珊瑚礁鱼类的多样性和丰度产生影响。在这里，我们研究了澳大利亚大堡礁（GBR）的两个广泛分开的区域，在珊瑚从暴露的珊瑚礁中大量消失后，15年来硬珊瑚和珊瑚礁鱼类组合的变化。虽然珊瑚覆盖的增加速度和程度（从60%开始）在两个部门相似，但底层珊瑚礁框架的粗糙度差异影响了鱼类群落的结构。扰动后不久，当珊瑚覆盖度很低，石灰岩礁架构成了大部分地表起伏时，南段礁体上相对无特征的底物所支持的鱼类种类比北段礁体少，北段礁体上有更多的褶皱底物。起初，北部珊瑚礁也有较高比例的草食性鱼类，可能是因为更复杂的珊瑚礁表面提供了庇护，使它们能够利用丰富的藻类草皮。随着珊瑚覆盖面积的增加，珊瑚群落提供了两个扇区的大部分地表地形，物种丰富度和鱼类群落的营养结构趋于一致。分支珊瑚覆盖的变化解释了这两个区域的鱼类群落随时间的显著变化，反映了这种生长形式对与珊瑚相关的小型鱼类的重要性。这些结果表明，尽管区域环境存在差异，但珊瑚群落的恢复和底层珊瑚礁框架的复杂性相互作用决定了相关鱼类群落的功能结构。
Coral reefs are consistently and increasingly subject to acute disturbance events that often lead to a reduction in live coral cover with concomitant effects on the diversity and abundance of coral reef fishes, Here we examine changes in both hard coral and reef-fish assemblages over 15 yr following major losses of coral from exposed reefs in 2 widely separated sectors of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia. While the rate and extent of increase in coral cover (from 60%) was similar in the 2 sectors, differences in the rugosity of the underlying reef framework influenced the structure of fish communities. Soon after disturbance, when coral cover was very low and the limestone reef framework constituted most of the surface relief, the relatively featureless substrate on reefs of the southern sector supported fewer fish species than reefs of the northern sector, which had a more rugose substrate. At first, northern reefs also had a higher proportion of herbivorous fish species, presumably because the more complex reef surface provided shelter and allowed them to exploit the abundant algal turf. With increasing coral cover, coral colonies came to provide most of the surface relief in both sectors, and species richness and the trophic structure of the fish communities converged. Variation in the cover of branching corals explained significant variation in the fish communities in both sectors over time, reflecting the importance of this growth form to small coral-associated fishes. These results show that the recovery of the coral community and the complexity of underlying reef framework interact to determine the functional structure of associated fish communities despite differences in regional settings.