Community assembly and diversification in Indo‐Pacific coral reef fishes

Ecology and Evolution

Nicolas Hubert¹  Emmanuel Paradis²  Henrich Bruggemann¹ 

[1] Laboratoire ECOMAR, Faculté des Sciences et Technologies, Université de La Réunion, 15 Avenue René Cassin, BP 7151, 97715 Saint-Denis Cedex 9, Réunion, France;Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UR226—ISE-M, 361 rue Jean-François Breton, BP 5095, 34196 Montpellier cedex 5, France

关键词: Chaetodontidae;    coral reef fishes;    Labridae;    lineage through time plot;    Phylogenetic community structure;    Pomacentridae;    sea levels;    theories of coexistence;   

DOI  :  10.1002/ece3.19

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

Abstract

Theories of species coexistence have played a central role in ecology and evolutionary studies of the origin and maintenance of biodiversity in highly diverse communities. The concept of niche and associated theories predict that competition for available ecological space leads to a ceiling in species richness that influences further diversification patterns. By contrast, the neutral theory supports that speciation is stochastic and diversity independent. We examined the phylogenetic community structure and diversification rates in three families and 14 sites within coral reef fish communities from the Indian and Pacific oceans. Using the phylogenetic relationships among 157 species estimated with 2300 bp of mitochondrial DNA, we tested predictions in terms of species coexistence from the neutral and niche theories. At the regional scale, our findings suggest that phylogenetic community structure shifts during community assembly to a pattern of dispersion as a consequence of allopatric speciation in recent times but overall, variations in diversification rates did not relate with sea level changes. At the local scale, the phylogenetic community structure is consistent with a neutral model of community assembly since no departure from a random sorting of species was observed. The present results support a neutral model of community assembly as a consequence of the stochastic and unpredictable nature of coral reefs favoring generalist and sedentary species competing for living space rather than trophic resources. As a consequence, the observed decrease in diversification rates may be seen as the result of a limited supply of living space as expected in a finite island model.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC   
© 2011 The Authors. MicrobiologyOpen published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.