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Community structure of corals and reef fishes at multiple scales

Connolly, Sean R. and Hughes, Terry P. and Bellwood, David R. and Karlson, Ronald H. (2005) Community structure of corals and reef fishes at multiple scales. Science, 309 (5739). pp. 1363-1365. ISSN 0036-8075

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Alternative Location: http://dx.doi.org.au/10.1126/science.1113281, http://www.sciencemag.org/

Abstract

Distributions of numerical abundance and resource use among species are fundamental aspects of community structure. Here, we characterise these patterns for tropical reef fishes and corals across a 10,000km biodiversity gradient. Numerical abundance and resource-use distributions have similar shapes, but they emerge at markedly different scales. These results are consistent with a controversial null hypothesis for community structure, according to which abundance distributions arise from the interplay of multiple stochastic environmental and demographic factors. Our findings underscore the importance of robust conservation strategies that are appropriately scaled to the broad suite of environmental processes that help sustain biodiversity.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Copyright 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Keywords:	coral reefs, species abundance distributions, community structure, macroecology
Subjects:	270000 Biological Sciences > 270700 Ecology and Evolution > 270708 Conservation and Biodiversity 270000 Biological Sciences > 270700 Ecology and Evolution > 270702 Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology) 270000 Biological Sciences > 270700 Ecology and Evolution > 270709 Biogeography
ID Code:	1076
Deposited By:	Sean Connolly
Deposited On:	31 May 2007
Last Modified:	15 Oct 2008 16:18

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