Unravelling coral reef biodiversity patterns

As part of an international team, our Senior Scientist Mary S. Wisz contributed to a project that will change how textbooks explain the biodiversity patterns of coral reefs of the world.

The team found that the historical climate stability that sustained coral reef habitats over the past 3 million years explains patterns in coral reef fish biodiversity better than any other hypothesis that can be tested. 

Using reconstructions of historical sea levels and sea surface temperatures with modelling tools, the team estimated historical stability of reef habitats. They subsequently compared these stability patterns to distributions of over 6,300 species of coral reef fishes. The team found places that offered refugia from sea level and temperature changes during Ice Ages (for example the Red Sea and the Indo-Australian Archipelago) preserve the highest diversity of coral reef fishes today.

The full results of the project are available in the latest issue of Science Magazine here: http://www.sciencemag.org/.

Above photos © David Bellwood