Functional versatility supports coral reef biodiversity.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Bellwood DR
PROVIDER: S-EPMC1560014 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Functional versatility supports coral reef biodiversity.
Bellwood D R DR Wainwright P C PC Fulton C J CJ Hoey A S AS
Proceedings. Biological sciences 20060101 1582
We explore the role of specialization in supporting species coexistence in high-diversity ecosystems. Using a novel ordination-based method to quantify specialist and generalist feeding structures and diets we examined the relationship between morphology and diet in 120 wrasses and parrotfishes from the Great Barrier Reef. We find that wrasses, despite their morphological diversity, exhibit weak links between morphology and diet and that specialist morphologies do not necessarily equate to speci ...[more]
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