School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.
Ecology. 2011 Dec;92(12):2285-98. doi: 10.1890/11-0037.1.
Increased habitat diversity is often predicted to promote the diversity of animal communities because a greater variety of habitats increases the opportunities for species to specialize on different resources and coexist. Although positive correlations between the diversities of habitat and associated animals are often observed, the underlying mechanisms are only now starting to emerge, and none have been tested specifically in the marine environment. Scleractinian corals constitute the primary habitat-forming organisms on coral reefs and, as such, play an important role in structuring associated reef fish communities. Using the same field experimental design in two geographic localities differing in regional fish species composition, we tested the effects of coral species richness and composition on the diversity, abundance, and structure of the local fish community. Richness of coral species overall had a positive effect on fish species richness but had no effect on total fish abundance or evenness. At both localities, certain individual coral species supported similar levels of fish diversity and abundance as the high coral richness treatments, suggesting that particular coral species are disproportionately important in promoting high local fish diversity. Furthermore, in both localities, different microhabitats (coral species) supported very different fish communities, indicating that most reef fish species distinguish habitat at the level of coral species. Fish communities colonizing treatments of higher coral species richness represented a combination of those inhabiting the constituent coral species. These findings suggest that mechanisms underlying habitat-animal interaction in the terrestrial environment also apply to marine systems and highlight the importance of coral diversity to local fish diversity. The loss of particular key coral species is likely to have a disproportionate impact on the biodiversity of associated fish communities.
生境多样性的增加通常被预测会促进动物群落的多样性，因为更多样化的生境增加了物种专门利用不同资源和共存的机会。尽管经常观察到生境和相关动物多样性之间存在正相关关系，但这些机制直到现在才开始显现，而且在海洋环境中还没有专门进行过测试。造礁石珊瑚是珊瑚礁上主要的栖息地形成生物，因此在构建相关的礁鱼群落结构中发挥着重要作用。我们在两个地理区域使用相同的野外实验设计，这两个区域的鱼类物种组成存在区域差异，以检验珊瑚物种丰富度和组成对当地鱼类群落多样性、丰度和结构的影响。珊瑚物种的丰富度总体上对鱼类物种的丰富度有积极影响，但对鱼类的总丰度或均匀度没有影响。在两个地点，某些特定的珊瑚物种支持与高珊瑚丰富度处理相同水平的鱼类多样性和丰度，这表明特定的珊瑚物种在促进当地鱼类多样性方面具有不成比例的重要性。此外，在两个地点，不同的微生境（珊瑚物种）支持非常不同的鱼类群落，表明大多数礁鱼物种在珊瑚物种水平上区分栖息地。在珊瑚物种丰富度较高的处理中定殖的鱼类群落代表了那些栖息在组成珊瑚物种中的鱼类群落的组合。这些发现表明，陆地环境中栖息地-动物相互作用的机制也适用于海洋系统，并强调了珊瑚多样性对当地鱼类多样性的重要性。特定关键珊瑚物种的丧失可能对相关鱼类群落的生物多样性产生不成比例的影响。
