Response to Comment on "Demographic dynamics of the smallest marine vertebrates fuel coral reef ecosystem functioning"

Simon J Brandl (1) , Renato A Morais (2) , Jordan Casey (3, 4) , Valeriano Parravicini (3, 4) , Luke Tornabene , Christopher H R Goatley , Isabelle Côté (5) , Carole C Baldwin , Nina M D Schiettekatte (3, 4) , David R Bellwood (2)

1 Simon Fraser University
2 CoralCoE - ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
3 CRIOBE - Centre de recherches insulaires et observatoire de l'environnement
4 LabEX CORAIL - Laboratoire d'Excellence CORAIL
5 Department of Biological Sciences [Burnaby]

Allgeier and Cline suggest that our model overestimates the contributions of cryptobenthic fishes to coral reef functioning. However, their 20-year model ignores the basic biological limits of population growth. If incorporated, cryptobenthic contributions to consumed fish biomass remain high (20 to 70%). Disturbance cycles and uncertainties surrounding the fate of large fishes on decadal scales further demonstrate the important role of cryptobenthic fishes.

Domains: Biodiversity and Ecology

Simon J Brandl, Renato A Morais, Jordan Casey, Valeriano Parravicini, Luke Tornabene, et al.. Response to Comment on "Demographic dynamics of the smallest marine vertebrates fuel coral reef ecosystem functioning". Science, 2019, ⟨10.1126/science.aaz1301⟩. ⟨hal-02432315⟩