Pozas-Schacre C., Casey J. M., Brandl S. J., Kulbicki Michel, Harmelin-Vivien M., Strona G., Parravicini V. (2021). Congruent trophic pathways underpin global coral reef food webs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118 (39), p. e2100966118 [9 p.]. ISSN 0027-8424.
Titre du document
Congruent trophic pathways underpin global coral reef food webs
Année de publication
2021
Auteurs
Pozas-Schacre C., Casey J. M., Brandl S. J., Kulbicki Michel, Harmelin-Vivien M., Strona G., Parravicini V.
Source
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021,
118 (39), p. e2100966118 [9 p.] ISSN 0027-8424
Ecological interactions uphold ecosystem structure and functioning. However, as species richness increases, the number of possible interactions rises exponentially. More than 6,000 species of coral reef fishes exist across the world's tropical oceans, resulting in an almost innumerable array of possible trophic interactions. Distilling general patterns in these interactions across different bioregions stands to improve our understanding of the processes that govern coral reef functioning. Here, we show that across bioregions, tropical coral reef food webs exhibit a remarkable congruence in their trophic interactions. Specifically, by compiling and investigating the structure of six coral reef food webs across distinct bioregions, we show that when accounting for consumer size and resource availability, these food webs share more trophic interactions than expected by chance. In addition, coral reef food webs are dominated by dietary specialists, which makes trophic pathways vulnerable to biodiversity loss. Prey partitioning among these specialists is geographically consistent, and this pattern intensifies when weak interactions are disregarded. Our results suggest that energy flows through coral reef communities along broadly comparable trophic pathways. Yet, these critical pathways are maintained by species with narrow, specialized diets, which threatens the existence of coral reef functioning in the face of biodiversity loss.
Plan de classement
Limnologie biologique / Océanographie biologique [034]
;
Ecologie, systèmes aquatiques [036]
Description Géographique
PACIFIQUE ; OCEAN INDIEN ; MADAGASCAR ; JAPON ; NOUVELLE CALEDONIE ; MARSHALL ILES ; HAWAII ; ANTILLES ; OKINAWA
Localisation
Fonds IRD [F B010083189]
Identifiant IRD
fdi:010083189
