Department of Ichthyology, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA; Center for Marine Biology, University of São Paulo, São Sebastião, SP 11612-109, Brazil.
Department of Ichthyology, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA.
Curr Biol. 2023 Apr 24;33(8):1421-1430.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.02.040. Epub 2023 Mar 13.
Coral reefs are home to some of the most studied ecological assemblages on the planet. However, differences in large-scale assembly rules have never been studied using empirical quantitative data stratified along the depth gradient of reefs. Consequently, little is known about the small- and regional-scale effects of depth on coral reef assemblages. Using a large dataset of underwater surveys, we observed that the influence of classic biogeographic drivers on the species richness of coral reef fishes changes significantly with depth, shaping distinct assemblages governed by different rules in mesophotic coral ecosystems. We show that a general pattern of decreased taxonomic and functional richness of reef fish assemblages with depth results from convergent filtering of species composition and trophic strategies on deeper reefs across ocean basins and that at smaller scales deep-reef communities are less influenced by regional factors than shallower reefs.
珊瑚礁是地球上一些研究最多的生态组合的家园。然而，以前从未使用沿珊瑚礁深度梯度分层的经验定量数据来研究大规模的组装规则差异。因此，对于深度对珊瑚礁组合的小范围和区域性影响知之甚少。使用大型水下调查数据集，我们观察到经典生物地理驱动因素对珊瑚礁鱼类物种丰富度的影响随深度显著变化，从而形成了由不同规则控制的不同中光珊瑚生态系统的集合。我们表明，随着深度的增加，珊瑚礁鱼类组合的分类和功能丰富度降低的一般模式是由跨大洋盆地的更深珊瑚礁中物种组成和营养策略的趋同过滤造成的，而且在较小的尺度上，深礁群落受区域因素的影响小于浅礁。
