ZMT - Leibniz Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung

Abstract

Estimating variability across spatial scales has been a major issue in ecology since the description of patterns in space is extremely valuable to propose specific hypotheses to unveil key processes behind these patterns. Actually, increasing consideration of scale is helping to address a key issue in ecology: the question of what influences the distribution and abundance of organisms. This question is particularly relevant in a system as diverse as coral reefs. And there is compiling evidence indicating that ecological processes controlling the structure of coral assemblages are strongly dependent on spatial scales. This talk points to the case of Venezuela, whose coast has different scenarios according to the region and is characterized by an upwelling period, particularly important in the eastern sector. In this study, we estimated the variability of the coral assemblage structure at different spatial scales to determine which scales explain the largest variability on β-diversity. Our results suggest that processes operating at spatial scales of hundreds of meters and hundreds of kilometers might both be critical to shaping coral assemblage structure in Venezuela, whereas smaller scales (i.e., hundreds of meters) seem to be highly important for the species turnover component of β-diversity. This result highlights the importance of creating scale-adapted management actions in Venezuela and likely across the Caribbean region.

 

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