Journal
MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
Volume 160, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.105038
Keywords
Brazilian reefs; Conservation; Diversity; Effects-population; Marine ecology; Latitudinal effects; Rare species; Reef fish distribution; Reef morphotype; Species abundance
Funding
- National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) [558286/2009-7, 478136/2013-7, 465634/2014-1]
- The Rufford Foundation (TRF) [14865-1]
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Causal mechanisms for broad-scale reef fish diversity patterns are poorly understood and current knowledge is limited to trends of species richness. This work compared the effects of ecological drivers on components of fish diversity across reefs spanning over 2.000 km of the tropical Brazilian coastline. A quarter of communities' diversity is accountable to common and dominant species, while remaining species are rare. Low-latitude sites were more diverse in rare species. Communities along the coast share common and dominant species, which display high densities across all reefs, but differ in rare species that show abundance peaks in particular reef morphotypes. The disproportionate distribution of rare species reveals a higher vulnerability of these communities to impacts and stochastic density fluctuations. Uneven conservation efforts directed to these morphotypes pose a threat to the maintenance of a paramount component of the reef fish diversity represented by rare species.
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