Predators alter community organization of coral reef cryptofauna and reduce abundance of coral mutualists
Predators alter community organization of coral reef cryptofauna and reduce abundance of coral mutualists
复制标题
捕食者改变了珊瑚礁隐秘动物的群落组织并减少了珊瑚共生体的丰度
作者：
A. Stier;A. Stier;M. Leray;M. Leray
珊瑚礁是世界上最多样化的海洋系统，但我们对维持这种非凡多样性的过程的理解仍然有限，并且在分类学上偏向于最引人注目的物种。生活在珊瑚礁间隙深处的隐生物构成了珊瑚礁多样性的大部分，其中许多物种为其珊瑚宿主提供了重要的保护服务。然而，我们对这些不太显眼但功能重要的物种的多样性和组成的控制过程知之甚少。在这里，我们实验量化捕食的作用，在推动社会组织的小鱼和十足类，生活在Pocillopora eydouxi，结构复杂，建礁珊瑚广泛发现在整个印度-太平洋嵌入。我们使用调查来描述捕食者的自然分布，然后，factorially操纵两个焦点捕食者物种，以量化捕食者密度和身份对P. eydouxi居住的隐底动物的独立和综合影响。捕食者减少了丰度（34%），物种丰富度（20%），并改变了物种组成。稀疏显示，观察到的物种丰富度的减少主要是由丰度的变化驱动的。此外，这两个捕食者物种独特的影响β多样性和组成的猎物组合。捕食者减少了数量，改变了一些互利鱼类和十足类的组成，其对珊瑚的好处是众所周知的多样性和密度依赖。我们预测，在P. eydouxi内存在的捕食者的密度和身份可能会大大改变珊瑚性能的自然和人为压力的频率和强度的增加。
Coral reefs are the most diverse marine systems in the world, yet our understanding of the processes that maintain such extraordinary diversity remains limited and taxonomically biased toward the most conspicuous species. Cryptofauna that live deeply embedded within the interstitial spaces of coral reefs make up the majority of reef diversity, and many of these species provide important protective services to their coral hosts. However, we know very little about the processes governing the diversity and composition of these less conspicuous but functionally important species. Here, we experimentally quantify the role of predation in driving the community organization of small fishes and decapods that live embedded within Pocillopora eydouxi, a structurally complex, reef-building coral found widely across the Indo-Pacific. We use surveys to describe the natural distribution of predators, and then, factorially manipulate two focal predator species to quantify the independent and combined effects of predator density and identity on P. eydouxi-dwelling cryptofauna. Predators reduced abundance (34 %), species richness (20 %), and modified species composition. Rarefaction revealed that observed reductions in species richness were primarily driven by changes in abundance. Additionally, the two predator species uniquely affected the beta diversity and composition of the prey assemblage. Predators reduced the abundance and modified the composition of a number of mutualist fishes and decapods, whose benefit to the coral is known to be both diversity- and density-dependent. We predict that the density and identity of predators present within P. eydouxi may substantially alter coral performance in the face of an increased frequency and intensity of natural and anthropogenic stressors.
影响因子：
8.8
作者：
Byrnes, J;Stachowicz, JJ;Thornber, CS
通讯作者：
Thornber, CS