Effects of interspecific territoriality and random settlement strategies on species-area relationships of damselfish assemblages in a meta-community

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We examined species-area relationships (SARs) of damselfish assemblages over 84 patch reefs in a complex fringing coral reef seascape of Ishigaki Island and subsequently conducted computer simulations to know the effects of random placement on SARs using the field data and a random placement model. We also analyzed statistically the effects of territorial herbivores on SARs. Results indicated that random settlement played an important role over the small patch reefs less than 3m^2, while inter-specific territories of Hemiglyphidodon plagiometopon had negative effects on species richness in the large patch reefs. However, the well-known territorial herbivore, Stegastes nigricans, did not show any negative effects in the large reefs, where they mainly used the vertical walls. The height of the large reefs reached the limit because of the shallow waters (2-3m deep) that characterize the fringing reef. Accordingly, species richness in the large habitats was considerably smaller than that expected from the random simulations in the meta-community.