Tsai Cheng-Han, Sweatman Hugh P A, Thibaut Loïc M, Connolly Sean R
College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia.
Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville MC, QLD 4810, Australia.
Sci Adv. 2022 Jun 17;8(24):eabm6858. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abm6858. Epub 2022 Jun 15.
The world's coral reefs are experiencing increasing volatility in coral cover, largely because of anthropogenic environmental change, highlighting the need to understand how such volatility will influence the structure and dynamics of reef assemblages. These changes may influence not only richness or evenness but also the temporal stability of species' relative abundances (temporal beta-diversity). Here, we analyzed reef fish assemblage time series from the Great Barrier Reef to show that, overall, 75% of the variance in abundance among species was attributable to persistent differences in species' long-term mean abundances. However, the relative importance of stochastic fluctuations in abundance was higher on reefs that experienced greater volatility in coral cover, whereas it did not vary with drivers of alpha-diversity. These findings imply that increased coral cover volatility decreases temporal stability in relative abundances of fishes, a transformation that is not detectable from static measures of biodiversity.
全球珊瑚礁的珊瑚覆盖率波动日益加剧，这主要是由人为环境变化导致的，凸显了了解这种波动将如何影响珊瑚礁群落结构和动态的必要性。这些变化不仅可能影响丰富度或均匀度，还可能影响物种相对丰度的时间稳定性（时间β多样性）。在这里，我们分析了大堡礁的珊瑚礁鱼类群落时间序列，结果表明，总体而言，物种间丰度差异的75%可归因于物种长期平均丰度的持续差异。然而，在珊瑚覆盖率波动较大的珊瑚礁上，丰度随机波动的相对重要性更高，而它并不随α多样性的驱动因素而变化。这些发现表明，珊瑚覆盖率波动的增加会降低鱼类相对丰度的时间稳定性，而这种变化从生物多样性的静态测量中是无法检测到的。
