Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles
Functional Composition of Chaetodon Butterflyfishes at a Peripheral and Extreme Coral Reef Location, the Persian Gulf
ORCID
0000-0002-6003-9324
ResearcherID
F-8807-2011
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Marine Pollution Bulletin
ISSN
0025-326X
Publication Date
7-30-2013
Keywords
Butterflyfishes, Coral reefs, Disturbance, Dietary specialisation, Habitat preferences, Scleractinian corals
Abstract
The functional composition of reef fish assemblages is highly conserved across large biogeographic areas, but it is unknown whether assembly rules hold at biogeographical and environmental extremes for coral reefs. This study examined the functional composition of butterflyfishes in the Persian Gulf, Musandam Peninsula, and Gulf of Oman. Only five species of butterflyfishes were recorded during this study, and mostly just in the Gulf of Oman. Unlike most locations in the Indo–Pacific where butterflyfish assemblages are dominated by obligate corallivores, the only obligate corallivore recorded, Chaetodon melapterus, was rare or absent at all locations. The most common and widespread species was Chaetodon nigropunctatus, which is shown to be a facultative corallivore. The diversity of butterflyfishes in the Persian Gulf is likely to have been constrained by its’ biogeographical history and isolation, but functional composition appears to be further affected by limited abundance of prey corals and harsh environmental conditions.
DOI
10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.10.014
Volume
72
Issue
2
First Page
333
Last Page
341
NSUWorks Citation
Morgan S. Pratchett, Andrew S. Hoey, David A. Feary, Andrew G. Bauman, John A. Burt, and Bernhard Riegl. 2013. Functional Composition of Chaetodon Butterflyfishes at a Peripheral and Extreme Coral Reef Location, the Persian Gulf .Marine Pollution Bulletin , (2) : 333 -341. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/307.
Comments
©2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.