Range overlap patterns were observed in a dataset of 10,446 expert-derived marine species distribution maps, including 8,295 coastal fishes, 1,212 invertebrates (crustaceans and molluscs), 820 reef-building corals, 50 seagrasses, and 69 mangroves. Distributions of tropical Indo-Pacific shore fishes revealed a concentration of species richness in the northern apex and central region of the Coral Triangle epicenter of marine biodiversity. This pattern was supported by distributions of invertebrates and habitat-forming primary producers. Habitat availability, heterogeneity, and sea surface temperatures were highly correlated with species richness across spatial grains ranging from 23,000 to 5,100,000 km² with and without correction for autocorrelation. The consistent retention of habitat variables in our predictive models supports the area of refuge hypothesis which posits reduced extinction rates in the Coral Triangle. This does not preclude support for a center of origin hypothesis that suggests increased speciation in the region may contribute to species richness. In addition, consistent retention of sea surface temperatures in models suggests that available kinetic energy may also be an important factor in shaping patterns of marine species richness. Kinetic energy may hasten rates of both extinction and speciation. The position of the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool to the east of the Coral Triangle in central Oceania and a pattern of increasing species richness from this region into the central and northern parts of the Coral Triangle suggests peripheral speciation with enhanced survival in the cooler parts of the Coral Triangle that also have highly concentrated available habitat. These results indicate that conservation of habitat availability and heterogeneity is important to reduce extinction of marine species and that changes in sea surface temperatures may influence the evolutionary potential of the region.

Full Paper

• Copies of papers downloaded from ReefBase may be used and reproduced for non-commercial purpose only.
• If you encounter any problem viewing the PDF files, please use the latest version of Adobe Reader.

Live reef food fish (LRFF) fishing is one of the most important livelihoods for the people of the coastal and small island communities within the Spermonde Archipelago in South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia. However, LRFF fishing and trade is considered a threat to the reef ecosystem due to over-fishing and the use of cyanide as a method of increasing the LRFF catch. This paper examines the effectiveness of a development and conservation effort known as COREMAP (Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Project), which was funded by loans and grants from various international financial institutions and overseas development agencies that aim to protect, rehabilitate, and sustain the utilization of coral reefs and their associated ecosystems in Indonesia. In this paper, COREMAP is examined in order to answer the main research question, “Has the lack of understanding of the socio-economics of the LRFF fishing and trade been a factor in the shortcomings of COREMAP to protect, rehabilitate, and sustain the utilization of coral reefs and their associated ecosystem in Indonesia?” This paper demonstrates that the achievement of COREMAP’s goals has been hindered by COREMAP’s inability to incorporate commoditization processes characterized by profit accumulation in the hands of a few actors and by the persistence of debts structure through the existing LRFF fishing and trade networks into COREMAP’s strategies and policies. Moreover, this paper also demonstrates that COREMAP’s organizational structures have not been able to challenge the practices of corruption which maintain cyanide fishing practices, characterized by the existing LRFF prosecution insurance network. This paper concludes that the inability of COREMAP to clearly address the issues of profit accumulation and debts as well as to challenge the practice of corruption have led to shortcomings in the achievement of COREMAP’s conservation and development goals. The case of managing reef fishery in Indonesia provides valuable lessons for countries with abundant reef ecosystem and for international development agencies which support the conservation and development of coastal areas.

Full Paper

• Copies of papers downloaded from ReefBase may be used and reproduced for non-commercial purpose only.
• If you encounter any problem viewing the PDF files, please use the latest version of Adobe Reader.

Although coral reefs are renowned biodiversity hotspots it is not known whether they also promote the evolution of exceptional ecomorphological diversity. We investigated this question by analysing a large functional morphological dataset of trophic characters within Labridae, a highly diverse group of fishes. Using an analysis that accounts for species relationships, the time available for diversification and model uncertainty we show that coral reef species have evolved functional morphological diversity twice as fast as non-reef species. In addition, coral reef species occupy 68.6% more trophic morphospace than non-reef species. Our results suggest that coral reef habitats promote the evolution of both trophic novelty and morphological diversity within fishes. Thus, the preservation of coral reefs is necessary, not only to safeguard current biological diversity but also to conserve the underlying mechanisms that can produce functional diversity in future.

DOI

• Copies of papers downloaded from ReefBase may be used and reproduced for non-commercial purpose only.
• If you encounter any problem viewing the PDF files, please use the latest version of Adobe Reader.

The harvesting of groupers (Serranidae) in Indonesia for the live reef food fish trade (LRFFT) has been ongoing since the late 1980s. Eight sites in Komodo National Park that included two fish spawning aggregation (FSA) sites were monitored for groupers and humphead wrasse, Cheilinus undulatus, from 1998 to 2003 and from 2005 to 2008 to examine temporal changes in abundance and assess the effectiveness of conservation and management efforts. Monitoring identified FSA sites for squaretail coralgrouper, Plectropomus areolatus, and brown-marbled grouper, Epinephelus fuscoguttatus. Both species formed aggregations before and during full moon from September to December, prior to lapses in monitoring (2003–2005) and in enforcement (2004-2005). Following these lapses, data reveal substantial declines in P. areolatus  abundance and the apparent extirpation of one aggregation at one site. Other non-aggregating species targeted by the LRFFT showed similar declines at three of eight monitored sites. This paper highlights the impact of FSA fishing and the need for a seamless monitoring and enforcement protocol in areas where aggregation fishing pressure is high. Within Komodo National Park, local fishers, particularly those operating on behalf of the LRFFT, pose a serious threat to population persistence of species targeted by this trade

DOI

• Copies of papers downloaded from ReefBase may be used and reproduced for non-commercial purpose only.
• If you encounter any problem viewing the PDF files, please use the latest version of Adobe Reader.

Reef fishes are an important resource in most countries in the South Pacific (Figure 1). At present there are  still huge gaps in our knowledge of the geographical distribution, biology and ecology of these fishes. Such information is often essential to managers and scientists working on these resources. Much of this information is already available in books or in FISHBASE. However, most of this information is not available per country and is scattered. In addition this information is not easily available for many species. The objective of the present report is to give for 14 South Pacific countries or territories a list of the most common reef fish species and indications on some of their basic life-history traits. The species targeted in this report are commercial species and/or species which are supposed to be ecologically important, but we attempted to include other species as well. Only species found on reefs or strongly associated to reefs are considered. In particular species found inshore in habitats such as mangroves, estuaries or pelagic species are not included. Species living in deeper water (more than 80m) are not considered either (e.g. the deep water Lutjanidae or Serranidae). A limited number of references is provided (globally and for each country) to assist in finding additional information on each species. The species lists in this report should NOT be considered as checklists
The taxonomy used in this report follows the taxonomy used in the 2010 version of FISHBASE. For species not listed in FISHBASE 2010 (recently described species or species waiting for a final status) a reference will be given. Un-described species were not retained. because a number of records could not be verified and the data available for many countries or territories is still very incomplete. In addition a number of species, in particular small and cryptic ones, are not included for most countries. In some instances, when the degree of information was low, some interpolation was performed with the presence/absence from nearby countries in order to indicate for some major species if their presence was likely. A detailed chapter is given for each country or territory (Cook Islands, Federate States of Micronesia, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Nouvelle Calédonie, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcain, Polynésie-Française, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis et Futuna). These chapters will be either in English or French depending on the official language in these countries. 

Link to PDF

• Copies of papers downloaded from ReefBase may be used and reproduced for non-commercial purpose only.
• If you encounter any problem viewing the PDF files, please use the latest version of Adobe Reader.