Humans and seasonal climate variability threaten large-bodied coral reef fish with small ranges

C. Mellin (), D. Mouillot, M. Kulbicki, T. R. McClanahan, L. Vigliola, C. J. A. Bradshaw, R. E. Brainard, P. Chabanet, G. J. Edgar, D. A. Fordham, A. M. Friedlander, V. Parravicini, A. M. M. Sequeira, R. D. Stuart-Smith, L. Wantiez and M. J. Caley
Additional contact information
C. Mellin: Australian Institute of Marine Science
D. Mouillot: UMR 9190 MARBEC, IRD-CNRS-IFREMER-UM, Université de Montpellier
M. Kulbicki: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UMR ‘Entropie’, LABEX Corail, Université de Perpignan
T. R. McClanahan: Marine Programs, Wildlife Conservation Society
L. Vigliola: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UMR ‘Entropie’, LABEX Corail
C. J. A. Bradshaw: The Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide
R. E. Brainard: NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center
P. Chabanet: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UMR ‘Entropie’, LABEX Corail
G. J. Edgar: Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
D. A. Fordham: The Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide
A. M. Friedlander: Pristine Seas, National Geographic Society
V. Parravicini: Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University
A. M. M. Sequeira: IOMRC and The UWA Oceans Institute, School of Animal Biology and Centre for Marine Futures, The University of Western Australia M470
R. D. Stuart-Smith: Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
L. Wantiez: Research Unit LIVE (EA4243), University of New Caledonia
M. J. Caley: Australian Institute of Marine Science

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Coral reefs are among the most species-rich and threatened ecosystems on Earth, yet the extent to which human stressors determine species occurrences, compared with biogeography or environmental conditions, remains largely unknown. With ever-increasing human-mediated disturbances on these ecosystems, an important question is not only how many species can inhabit local communities, but also which biological traits determine species that can persist (or not) above particular disturbance thresholds. Here we show that human pressure and seasonal climate variability are disproportionately and negatively associated with the occurrence of large-bodied and geographically small-ranging fishes within local coral reef communities. These species are 67% less likely to occur where human impact and temperature seasonality exceed critical thresholds, such as in the marine biodiversity hotspot: the Coral Triangle. Our results identify the most sensitive species and critical thresholds of human and climatic stressors, providing opportunity for targeted conservation intervention to prevent local extinctions.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10491 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms10491

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10491

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().