Loiseau Nicolas, Gaertner Jean-Claude
University of French Polynesia - UMR-241 EIO (UPF IRD Ifremer ILM) Papeete French Polynesia.
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) - UMR-241 EIO (UPF IRD Ifremer ILM) Laboratoire d'Excellence Corail - Papeete Papeete French Polynesia.
Ecol Evol. 2015 Aug 27;5(18):4018-27. doi: 10.1002/ece3.1619. eCollection 2015 Sep.
We present the first representative and quantified overview of the indices used worldwide for assessing the biodiversity of coral reef fishes. On this basis, we discuss the suitability and drawbacks of the indices most widely used in the assessment of coral fish biodiversity. An extensive and systematic survey of the literature focused on coral reef fish biodiversity was conducted from 1990 up to the present. We found that the multicomponent aspect of biodiversity, which is considered as a key feature of biodiversity for numerous terrestrial and marine ecosystems, has been poorly taken into account in coral reef fish studies. Species richness is still strongly dominant while other diversity components, such as functional diversity, are underestimated even when functional information is available. We also demonstrate that the reason for choosing particular indices is often unclear, mainly based on empirical rationales and/or the reproduction of widespread habits, but generally with no clear relevance with regard to the aims of the studies. As a result, the most widely used indices (species richness, Shannon, etc.) would appear to be poorly suited to meeting the main challenges facing the monitoring of coral reef fish biodiversity in the future. Our results clearly show that coral reef scientists should rather take advantage of the multicomponent aspect of biodiversity. To facilitate this approach, we propose general guidelines to serve as a basis for the selection of indices that provide complementary and relevant information for monitoring the response of coral reef fish biodiversity in the face of structuring factors (natural or anthropic). The aim of these guidelines was to achieve a better match between the properties of the selected indices and the context of each study (e.g. expected effect of the main structuring factors, nature of data available).
我们首次对全球用于评估珊瑚礁鱼类生物多样性的指标进行了具有代表性的量化概述。在此基础上，我们讨论了在评估珊瑚鱼生物多样性时最广泛使用的指标的适用性和缺点。从1990年至今，我们对专注于珊瑚礁鱼类生物多样性的文献进行了广泛而系统的调查。我们发现，生物多样性的多组分特征，这在众多陆地和海洋生态系统中被视为生物多样性的关键特征，在珊瑚礁鱼类研究中却很少被考虑。物种丰富度仍然占据主导地位，而其他多样性组分，如功能多样性，即使在有功能信息的情况下也被低估。我们还表明，选择特定指标的原因往往不明确，主要基于经验依据和/或对普遍做法的沿用，但通常与研究目的没有明确的相关性。因此，最广泛使用的指标（物种丰富度、香农指数等）似乎不太适合应对未来监测珊瑚礁鱼类生物多样性所面临的主要挑战。我们的结果清楚地表明，珊瑚礁科学家应该利用生物多样性的多组分特征。为了便于采取这种方法，我们提出了一般指导原则，作为选择指标的基础，这些指标可为监测珊瑚礁鱼类生物多样性面对构建因素（自然或人为）时的响应提供补充和相关信息。这些指导原则的目的是使所选指标的特性与每项研究的背景（例如主要构建因素的预期影响、可用数据的性质）更好地匹配。
