Publications: Determinants of reef fish assemblages in tropical Oceanic islands

Did you know that oceanic islands are considered a window to the understanding of more pristine marine
environments?

Oceanic islands are known to have a large number and diversity of reef fish. However, due to its isolation and its
small areas they are highly sensitive to changes induced by environmental, oceanographic and human actions. In
this recent study published in the Journal Ecography, the member of LECAR Lab Juan Quimbayo, Thiago
Mendes, Carlos Ferreira and colleagues explored different measures of diversity of reef fish communities. They
noted for example, that fish communities on islands with nearby human populations have lower fish biomass,
probably due to fishing. Moreover, this study shows the importance of primary productivity for the maintenance of
different aspects of biodiversity such as species richness, functional diversity, number of individuals and fish
biomass. Finally, this study expands theoretical concepts for marine environments that will be important for the
understanding of species diversity patterns.

Reef fishes from Brazilian oceanic islands. Photos: João Paulo Krajewski

The manuscript can be downloaded at this link

Written by: Juan Quimbayo August 2018