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Dryad

Western Indian Ocean coral and fish normalized site richness collected between 1991 to 2000

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Dec 11, 2023 version files 120.47 KB

Abstract

Aim: Strong social-ecological trade-offs between resource extraction and protection have created challenges for large, protected area management in natural-resource-dependent countries. Therefore, local governments and community conservation activities are becoming common and need information about low environmental exposure and high biodiversity for planning localized conservation activities.

Location: the western Indian Ocean

Methods: Coral reef sites were evaluated for local scale environmental and species richness to elucidate local patterns in spatial heterogeneity. Local coral and fish taxonomic richness were normalized to partially account for common and heterogeneous disturbances to coral cover and fish biomass. Residuals were evaluated for patterns of local diversity with geography, environmental stress, and by machine learning to evaluate the relationship with 21 specific environmental variables.

Results: High variability in richness was found at similar latitudes where richness was high. Relationships with specific environmental and human influences variables were complex and spatially heterogeneous. Expected large-scale biogeographic variables influenced richness but variability and environmental influences were highly specific and localized. Among the environmental and human influence variables examined, ~ 8 variables contributed 8 to 25% of the variance to the richness of both coral and fishes.

Main conclusions: Decisions to focus small-scale conservation on locally biodiverse locations could contribute to species persistence by planning for local heterogeneity in richness and stress. From this specific data set, sites in the Pemba Channel between the Tanzanian mainland and Pemba Island, and northern Mozambique and Madagascar fit these characteristics.