Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Patterns and processes in reef fish diversity

Nature volume 421, pages 933–936 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

A central aim of ecology is to explain the heterogeneous distribution of biodiversity on earth. As expectations of diversity loss grow1,2,3,4,5, this understanding is also critical for effective management and conservation. Although explanations for biodiversity patterns are still a matter for intense debate5, they have often been considered to be scale-dependent6,7. At large geographical scales, biogeographers have suggested that variation in species richness results from factors such as area, temperature, environmental stability, and geological processes, among many others5,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14. From the species pools generated by these large-scale processes, community ecologists have suggested that local-scale assembly of communities is achieved through processes such as competition, predation, recruitment, disturbances and immigration5,6,7,8,15,16. Here we analyse hypotheses on speciation and dispersal for reef fish from the Indian and Pacific oceans and show how dispersal from a major centre of origination can simultaneously account for both large-scale gradients in species richness and the structure of local communities.

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Geographical patterns in reef fish biodiversity in the Indian and Pacific oceans.
Figure 2: Geographical pattern of reef fish endemism in the Indian and Pacific oceans.
Figure 3: Pairwise comparisons of species richness, pelagic larval duration and distance from the Indonesian and Philippine region.
Figure 4: Contribution of IPR and endemic species to local reef fish assemblages in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Walther, G. R. et al. Ecological responses to recent climate change. Nature 416, 389–395 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Chapin, F. S. I. et al. Consequences of changing diversity. Nature 405, 234–242 (2000)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Roberts, C. M. & Hawkins, J. P. Extinction in the sea. Trends Ecol. Evol. 14, 241–246 (1999)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Roberts, C. M. et al. Marine biodiversity hotspots and conservation priorities for tropical reefs. Science 295, 1280–1284 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Gaston, K. J. Global patterns in biodiversity. Nature 405, 220–227 (2000)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Keddy, P. & Weiher, E. in Ecological Assembly Rules (eds Weiher, E. & Keddy, P) 1–20 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 1999)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  7. Cornell, H. V. & Karlson, R. H. Coral species richness: Ecological vs. biogeographical influences. Coral Reefs 19, 37–49 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Bellwood, D. & Hughes, T. Regional-assembly rules and biodiversity of coral reefs. Science 292, 1532–1535 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Veron, J. E. N. Corals in Space and Time: The Biogeography and Evolution of the Scleractinia (UNSW Press, Sydney, 1995)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Colwell, R. K. & Lees, D. C. The mid-domain effect: geometric constraints on the geography of species richness. Trends Ecol. Evol. 15, 70–76 (2000)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Springer, V. G. Pacific plate biogeography, with special reference to shorefishes. Smithson. Contrib. Zool. 177, 1–182 (1982)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Bellwood, D. R. & Wainwright, P. C. in Coral Reef Fishes: Dynamics and Diversity in a Complex Ecosystem (ed. Sale, P. F.) 5–32 (Academic, San Diego, California, 2002)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  13. Harmelin-Vivien, M. L. in Coral Reef Fishes: Dynamics and Diversity in a Complex Ecosystem (ed. Sale, P. F.) 265–274 (Academic, San Diego, California, 2002)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  14. Rosenzweig, M. L. Species Diversity in Space in Time (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 1995)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  15. Caley, M. J. & Schluter, D. The relationship between local and regional diversity. Ecology 78, 70–80 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Karlson, R. H. & Cornell, H. V. Scale-dependent variation in local vs. regional effects on coral species richness. Ecol. Monogr. 68, 259–274 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Planes, S. in Coral Reef Fishes: Dynamics and Diversity in a Complex Ecosystem (ed. Sale, P. F.) 201–220 (Academic, San Diego, California, 2002)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  18. Hughes, T. P., Bellwood, D. R. & Connolly, S. R. Biodiversity hotspots, centres of endemicity, and the conservation of coral reefs. Ecol. Lett. 5, 775–784 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Bonhomme, F. & Planes, S. Some evolutionary arguments about what maintains the pelagic interval in reef fishes. Environ. Biol. Fish. 59, 365–383 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Gaylord, B. & Gaines, S. D. Temperature or transport: species range boundaries mediated solely by flow. Am. Nat. 115, 769–789 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Allen, G. R. & Smith-Vaniz, W. F. Fishes of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Atoll Res. Bull. 412, 1–21 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Zapata, F. & Moralez, Y. A. Spatial and temporal pattern of fish diversity in a coral reef at Gorgona Island, Colombia. Proc. 8th Int. Coral Reef Symp. 1, 1029–1034 (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Grove, J. S. & Lavenberg, R. J. The Fishes of the Galapagos Islands (Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, 1997)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Thomson, D. A., Findley, L. T. & Kerstich, A. N. Reef Fishes of the Sea of Cortez (Univ. Texas Press, Austin, 1999)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Victor, B. C. Duration of the planktonic larval stage of one hundred species of Pacific and Atlantic wrasses (family Labridae). Mar. Biol. 90, 317–326 (1986)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Victor, B. C. & Wellington, G. M. Endemism and the pelagic larval duration of reef fishes in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 205, 241–248 (2000)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Victor, B. C. Planktonic larval duration of one hundred species of Pacific and Atlantic damselfishes (Pomacentridae). Mar. Biol. 101, 557–567 (1989)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank R. H. Karlson, J. Lovett-Doust, F. Zapata, J. Ciborowski and D. Hogan for discussion and comments. The staff at the Leddy Library (University of Windsor) assisted in obtaining copies of the manuscripts required to build the database. Funding was provided by NSERC (to P.F.S.) and OGS (to C.M. and P.M.C.).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Stuart A. Ludsin

    Present address: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48105-2945, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, Ontario, N9B 3P4, Canada

    Camilo Mora, Paul M. Chittaro, Peter F. Sale, Jacob P. Kritzer & Stuart A. Ludsin

Authors
  1. Camilo Mora
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  2. Paul M. Chittaro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  3. Peter F. Sale
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jacob P. Kritzer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  5. Stuart A. Ludsin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Camilo Mora.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mora, C., Chittaro, P., Sale, P. et al. Patterns and processes in reef fish diversity. Nature 421, 933–936 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01393

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01393

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing