Ecological and morphological traits predict depth-generalist fishes on coral reefs.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Bridge TC
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4795020 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Ecological and morphological traits predict depth-generalist fishes on coral reefs.
Bridge Tom C L TC Luiz Osmar J OJ Coleman Richard R RR Kane Corinne N CN Kosaki Randall K RK
Proceedings. Biological sciences 20160101 1823
Ecological communities that occupy similar habitats may exhibit functional convergence despite significant geographical distances and taxonomic dissimilarity. On coral reefs, steep gradients in key environmental variables (e.g. light and wave energy) restrict some species to shallow depths. We show that depth-generalist reef fishes are correlated with two species-level traits: caudal fin aspect ratio and diet. Fishes with high aspect ratio (lunate) caudal fins produce weaker vortices in the wate ...[more]
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