Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada, B3H 4R2;
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Mar 23;118(12). doi: 10.1073/pnas.2012318118.
Species' traits, rather than taxonomic identities, determine community assembly and ecosystem functioning, yet biogeographic patterns have been far less studied for traits. While both environmental conditions and evolutionary history shape trait biogeography, their relative contributions are largely unknown for most organisms. Here, we explore the global biogeography of reef fish traits for 2,786 species from 89 ecoregions spanning eight marine realms with contrasting environmental conditions and evolutionary histories. Across realms, we found a common structure in the distribution of species traits despite a 10-fold gradient in species richness, with a defined "backbone" of 21 trait combinations shared by all realms globally, both temperate and tropical. Across ecoregions, assemblages under similar environmental conditions had similar trait compositions despite hosting drastically different species pools from separate evolutionary lineages. Thus, despite being separated by thousands of kilometers and millions of years of evolution, similar environments host similar trait compositions in reef fish assemblages worldwide. Our findings suggest that similar trait-based management strategies can be applied among regions with distinct species pools, potentially improving conservation outcomes across diverse jurisdictions.
物种的特征而非分类身份决定了群落组装和生态系统功能，但特征的生物地理模式研究得还很少。虽然环境条件和进化历史都影响了特征的生物地理分布，但对于大多数生物来说，它们的相对贡献在很大程度上是未知的。在这里，我们研究了来自 89 个生态区的 2786 种珊瑚鱼的全球特征生物地理分布，这些生态区跨越了具有不同环境条件和进化历史的八个海洋领域。在各个领域中，尽管物种丰富度存在 10 倍的梯度，但我们发现物种特征的分布存在共同的结构，全球所有领域都存在 21 种共同的特征组合，无论是温带还是热带。在各个生态区，尽管处于相似环境条件下的集合拥有截然不同的物种库，分别来自不同的进化谱系，但它们的特征组成相似。因此，尽管相隔数千公里和数百万年的进化，相似的环境在全球的珊瑚鱼集合中仍拥有相似的特征组成。我们的研究结果表明，在具有不同物种库的地区可以应用相似的基于特征的管理策略，这可能会改善不同司法管辖区的保护结果。
