Abstract
A comparison of fish diversity was carried out among 45 sites within four localities in the Mexican Tropical Western Atlantic (TWA) and Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) regions. Several taxonomical and functional diversity indices were considered, and their relationships with the coral cover were investigated in each locality. We found that despite a lower number of species, the localities within the Mexican TEP region had equal or even higher functional diversity than the localities in the Mexican TWA region where sites within the Caribbean Sea appeared particularly poorly diversified. Divergent relationships between fish diversity and coral cover were observed between the two oceanic regions. On the one hand, it tended to be positive in the TWA, and on the other hand, it was negative in the two TEP localities. This contrast may be explained by the low coral species richness and the homogeneous habitat (low structural complexity) provided by a high cover of coral in the TEP. This study highlighted how the fish assemblages can be functionally diversified within the TEP, a region generally considered poorly diversified, and how the relationship between fish diversity and coral cover may vary between oceanic regions.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the fishers, divers, and institutions that helped to conduct the underwater survey programs. We thank the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas for allowing us to conduct surveys in marine protected areas.
Funding
This study was funded by Secretaría de Educación Pública & Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Grants Numbers: 169747); Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Grants Numbers: graduate scholarship 413585, PDC-247104, and 169809); Marie-Curie BeIPD-COFUND program (Grants Numbers: 600405).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Manuel Olán-González and Damien Olivier. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Damien Olivier and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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This study did not involve the collection of samples or manipulation of the habitats, therefore a permit is not needed. We informed the Marine Protected Area (MPA) authorities prior to conducting fieldwork as it is a requirement in order to carry out activities within each MPA.
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Olán-González, M., Reyes-Bonilla, H., Álvarez-Filip, L. et al. Fish diversity divergence between tropical eastern pacific and tropical western Atlantic coral reefs. Environ Biol Fish 103, 1323–1341 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-020-01026-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-020-01026-y