@article{fdi:010057328,
  title = {{R}elative importance of habitat and fishing in influencing reef fish communities across seventeen {P}acific {I}sland {C}ountries and {T}erritories},
  author = {{P}inca, {S}. and {K}ronen, {M}. and {M}agron, {F}. and {M}c{A}rdle, {B}. and {V}igliola, {L}aurent and {K}ulbicki, {M}ichel and {A}ndr{\'e}fou{\¨e}t, {S}erge},
  editor = {},
  language = {{ENG}},
  abstract = {{R}eef fish assessments were undertaken in 17 {P}acific islands to describe the status of finfish resources in 63 villages where fishing is mainly artisanal. {S}urveys were performed by recording the number and size of edible fish species and benthic composition. {F}ishing impact was described through six proxies representing level of catch, alternative incomes, degree of commercial catch and country economic development derived from a simultaneous socioeconomic assessment. {T}he relative importance of broadly defined habitat (geographical location, island and reef type, substrate composition) and fishing impact in controlling the distribution of fish trophic groups, families and species was measured through multivariate analysis. {T}he extreme faunistic diversity was shown by the large variation in fish density (difference of up to an order of magnitude) and fish biomass (displaying a 20-fold difference across the region). {H}erbivores were dominant in the eastern part of the region, at what we classified as complex islands and at islands with small lagoon and at coastal reefs, while carnivores were dominant at oceanic islands and atolls and at outer reefs. {S}pecific habitat associations were shown for {S}caridae, {A}canthuridae, {S}iganidae, {B}alistidae, {L}ethrinidae, {L}utjanidae and {S}erranidae. {R}elative importance and size decrease of several fish families ({M}ullidae, {S}caridae, {L}utjanidae and {S}erranidae) were related to high fishing impact. {A}canthuridae and {L}ethrinidae appeared to have a role as opportunistic groups in impacted sites. {T}he relative impact from fishing and habitat on fishes accounted for, respectively, 20 and 30% of variance, demonstrating the effect of human impacts even at such large scale and taking into account only limited fishing impact variables.},
  keywords = {{F}ish community composition ; fishing impact ; habitat variability ; redundancy analysis ; spatial scales},
  booktitle = {},
  journal = {{F}ish and {F}isheries},
  volume = {13},
  numero = {4},
  pages = {361--379},
  ISSN = {1467-2960},
  year = {2012},
  DOI = {10.1111/j.1467-2979.2011.00425.x},
  URL = {https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010057328},
}