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      Fishing down nutrients on coral reefs

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          Abstract

          Fishing is widely considered a leading cause of biodiversity loss in marine environments, but the potential effect on ecosystem processes, such as nutrient fluxes, is less explored. Here, we test how fishing on Caribbean coral reefs influences biodiversity and ecosystem functions provided by the fish community, that is, fish-mediated nutrient capacity. Specifically, we modelled five processes of nutrient storage (in biomass) and supply (via excretion) of nutrients, as well as a measure of their multifunctionality, onto 143 species of coral reef fishes across 110 coral reef fish communities. These communities span a gradient from extreme fishing pressure to protected areas with little to no fishing. We find that in fished sites fish-mediated nutrient capacity is reduced almost 50%, despite no substantial changes in the number of species. Instead, changes in community size and trophic structure were the primary cause of shifts in ecosystem function. These findings suggest that a broader perspective that incorporates predictable impacts of fishing pressure on ecosystem function is imperative for effective coral reef conservation and management.

          Abstract

          Coral reefs are productive ecosystems due to high levels of nutrient recycling in which fishes play a critical role. This study shows fishing can reduce the amount of nutrients supplied and stored by fishes to coral reefs by nearly half, even when the number of fish species present is largely unchanged.

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          Most cited references23

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          Fishing down marine food webs

          The mean trophic level of the species groups reported in Food and Agricultural Organization global fisheries statistics declined from 1950 to 1994. This reflects a gradual transition in landings from long-lived, high trophic level, piscivorous bottom fish toward short-lived, low trophic level invertebrates and planktivorous pelagic fish. This effect, also found to be occurring in inland fisheries, is most pronounced in the Northern Hemisphere. Fishing down food webs (that is, at lower trophic levels) leads at first to increasing catches, then to a phase transition associated with stagnating or declining catches. These results indicate that present exploitation patterns are unsustainable.
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            Limited functional redundancy in high diversity systems: resilience and ecosystem function on coral reefs

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              The role of soil organic matter in sustaining soil fertility

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Nat Commun
                Nat Commun
                Nature Communications
                Nature Publishing Group
                2041-1723
                16 August 2016
                2016
                : 7
                : 12461
                Affiliations
                [1 ]1122 NE Boat St. School of Aquatic and Fisheries Science, University of Washington , Seattle, Washington 98105, USA
                [2 ]Oceans Program, Center for Biological Diversity , San Francisco, California 945612, USA
                [3 ]Smithsonian Marine Station , Fort Pierce, Florida 34949, USA
                [4 ]127 David Clark Labs, Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University , Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, USA
                Author notes
                Article
                ncomms12461
                10.1038/ncomms12461
                4990701
                27529748
                7a5b7d85-7014-4dc8-b285-367f802a92b6
                Copyright © 2016, The Author(s)

                This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

                History
                : 24 August 2015
                : 05 July 2016
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