Movement, Space Use, and the Responses of Coral Reef Fish to Climate Change

Abstract

Anthropogenic climate change and other localized stressors have led to the widespread degradation of coral reefs, characterized by losses of live coral, reduced structural complexity, and shifts in benthic community composition. These changes have altered the composition of reef fish assemblages with important consequences for ecosystem function. Animal movement and space use are critically important to population dynamics, community assembly, and species coexistence. In this perspective, I discuss how studies of reef fish movement and space use could help us to elucidate the effects of climate change on reef fish assemblages and the functions they provide. In addition to describing how reef fish space use relates to resource abundance and the intrinsic characteristics of reef fish (e.g., body size), we should begin to take a mechanistic approach to understanding movement in reef fish and to investigate the role of movement in mediating species interactions on coral reefs. Technological advances in animal tracking and biotelemetry, as well as methodological advances in the analysis of movement, will aid in this endeavor. Baseline studies of reef fish movement and space use and their effect on community assembly and species coexistence will provide us with important information for predicting how climate change will influence reef fish assemblages.