The history and biogeography of fishes on coral reefs
Book Chapter ResearchOnline@JCUAbstract
[Extract] Coral reefs have been around since the Ordovician (Wood, 1999), and throughout their 450-million year history they have shared the oceans with fishes. Modern scleractinian-dominated coral reefs and their associated fish faunas represent only the latest manifestation of a reefal ecosystem. It is almost self-evident that history is important to coral reefs, as the reefs build on the skeletons of past generations. But what of the associated fauna? Today, fishes form an integral part of reef communities, modifying benthic community structure and forming a major conduit for the movement of energy and material. Like the reefs, reef fish faunas have been shaped by history, but this historical influence may not be as apparent. Although it is becoming increasingly clear that history plays an important role in structuring local communities (Rickleffs and Schluter, 1993a), its influence on the ecology and biogeography of fishes on coral reefs remains largely unknown. Most studies of reef systems have addressed the question of how biogeographic and ecological patterns are maintained; relatively few consider how these patterns arose or their consequences. However, it is the combination of these two factors, origins and maintenance, that offers the clearest understanding of the nature of biogeographic patterns in reef organisms. Studies of the history of coral reefs have been largely restricted to documenting the history of the reef builders, which have left an outstanding fossil record (Wood, 1999). The history of associated faunas, and fish in particular, is less clear. However, this is changing, primarily as a result of phylogenetic analyses of reef fishes and from a reappraisal of the fossil record.
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Publication Name
Coral Reef Fishes: dynamic and diversity in a complex ecosystem
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ISBN/ISSN
978-0-12-615185-5
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Pages Count
549
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Publisher
Elsevier
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Publisher Location
San Diego, CA, USA
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DOI
10.1016/B978-012615185-5/50003-7