González-Barrios F Javier, Keith Sally A, Emslie Michael J, Ceccarelli Daniela M, Williams Gareth J, Graham Nicholas A J
Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, QLD, Australia.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 13;16(1):303. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-55128-7.
Escalating climate and anthropogenic disturbances draw into question how stable large-scale patterns in biological diversity are in the Anthropocene. Here, we analyse how patterns of reef fish diversity have changed from 1995 to 2022 by examining local diversity and species dissimilarity along a large latitudinal gradient of the Great Barrier Reef and to what extent this correlates with changes in coral cover and coral composition. We find that reef fish species richness followed the expected latitudinal diversity pattern (i.e., greater species richness toward lower latitudes), yet has undergone significant change across space and time. We find declines in species richness at lower latitudes in recent periods but high variability at higher latitudes. Reef fish turnover continuously increased over time at all latitudes and did not show evidence of a return. Altered diversity patterns are characterised by heterogeneous changes in reef fish trophic groups across the latitudinal gradient. Shifts in coral composition correlate more strongly with reef fish diversity changes than fluctuations in coral cover. Our findings provide insight into the extent to which classic macroecological patterns are maintained in the Anthropocene, ultimately questioning whether these patterns are decoupling from their original underlying drivers.
不断升级的气候和人为干扰使人们质疑在人类世中生物多样性的大规模模式有多稳定。在这里，我们通过研究大堡礁沿大纬度梯度的局部多样性和物种差异，分析了1995年至2022年珊瑚礁鱼类多样性模式如何变化，以及这在多大程度上与珊瑚覆盖和珊瑚组成的变化相关。我们发现，珊瑚礁鱼类物种丰富度遵循预期的纬度多样性模式（即低纬度地区物种丰富度更高），但在空间和时间上都发生了显著变化。我们发现，近期低纬度地区物种丰富度下降，但高纬度地区变化很大。所有纬度的珊瑚礁鱼类更替率随时间持续增加，且没有恢复的迹象。多样性模式的改变表现为沿纬度梯度珊瑚礁鱼类营养类群的异质性变化。珊瑚组成的变化与珊瑚礁鱼类多样性变化的相关性比珊瑚覆盖的波动更强。我们的研究结果深入了解了在人类世中经典宏观生态模式的维持程度，最终质疑这些模式是否正在与其最初的潜在驱动因素脱钩。
