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Published Version (Advanced Access)CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Seascape connectivity shapes fish functional diversity, ecosystem functioning and resilience in subtropical coral reefs
Coral Reefs, Vol.44, pp.1771-1788
2025
Appears in UniSC Supported Open Access Outputs
Abstract
Animals support a diversity of ecological processes that are linked to the stability, condition and resilience of ecosystems. This means that metrics indexing the diversity of a food web should be linked to the delivery of these ecological processes; yet, how diversity relates to ecological functioning remains unclear in many ecosystems. Coral reefs are reliant on multiple processes to maintain resilience and support ecosystem services, yet are at risk globally from sedimentation, overfishing and climate change. We quantified how seascape connectivity and reef context shape the functional diversity of fish and two ecological processes across subtropical coral reefs in Moreton Bay in eastern Australia. We used baited and unbaited remote underwater video stations and a series of functional assays to determine how the functional composition of a food web and processes correlate with the seascape across 50 reef sites. Fish functional richness was driven by the distance to the estuary and nearby habitats. Communities were more functionally balanced in protected areas and more divergent on reefs with higher coral cover adjacent to mangroves. Ecological processes were driven by the distance to the estuary, critically highlighting no relationship with fish functional diversity. We also show that ecosystem functioning was greatest when distances to the estuary were greater than 25 km, resulting in more diverse and higher trophic level fish. Understanding the rate and distribution of ecological processes closely linked with ecological resilience and how these relationships are impacted by biodiversity and environmental attributes is key for optimising reef conservation and management.
Details
- Title
- Seascape connectivity shapes fish functional diversity, ecosystem functioning and resilience in subtropical coral reefs
- Authors
- Joshua T. Hill - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringAndrew D. Olds - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringBen L. Gilby - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringJesse D. Mosman - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringAmarina L. James - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringChristopher J. Henderson (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Publication details
- Coral Reefs, Vol.44, pp.1771-1788
- Publisher
- Springer
- Date published
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.1007/s00338-025-02734-6
- ISSN
- 1432-0975; 0722-4028
- Copyright note
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Data Availability
- Data for this study can be made available upon reasonable request to the authors.
- Grant note
- We would like to acknowledge and thank the University of the Sunshine Coast Science, Technology and Engineering for funding this project and extend our thanks to the Moreton Bay foundation for supporting additional fieldwork costs.
- Organisation Unit
- UniSC Sport; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991155737902621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Web Of Science research areas
- Marine & Freshwater Biology