DOI: 10.5061/dryad.k5tg1
title: Data from: Reef flattening effects on total richness and species responses in the Caribbean

description: 1. There has been ongoing flattening of Caribbean coral reefs with the
 loss of habitat having severe implications for these systems. Complexity
 and its structural components are important to fish species richness and
 community composition, but little is known about its role for other taxa
 or species-specific responses. 2. This study reveals the importance of
 reef habitat complexity and structural components to different taxa of
 macrofauna, total species richness, and individual coral and fish species
 in the Caribbean. 3. Species presence and richness of different taxa were
 visually quantified in one hundred 25-m2 plots in three marine reserves in
 the Caribbean. Sampling was evenly distributed across five levels of
 visually estimated reef complexity, with five structural components also
 recorded: the number of corals, number of large corals, slope angle,
 maximum sponge and maximum octocoral height. Taking advantage of natural
 heterogeneity in structural complexity within a particular coral reef
 habitat (Orbicella reefs) and discrete environmental envelope, thus
 minimizing other sources of variability, the relative importance of reef
 complexity and structural components was quantified for different taxa and
 individual fish and coral species on Caribbean coral reefs using boosted
 regression trees (BRTs). 4. Boosted regression tree models performed very
 well when explaining variability in total (82·3%), coral (80·6%) and fish
 species richness (77·3%), for which the greatest declines in richness
 occurred below intermediate reef complexity levels. Complexity accounted
 for very little of the variability in octocorals, sponges, arthropods,
 annelids or anemones. BRTs revealed species-specific variability and
 importance for reef complexity and structural components. Coral and fish
 species occupancy generally declined at low complexity levels, with the
 exception of two coral species (Pseudodiploria strigosa and Porites
 divaricata) and four fish species (Halichoeres bivittatus, H. maculipinna,
 Malacoctenus triangulatus and Stegastes partitus) more common at lower
 reef complexity levels. A significant interaction between country and reef
 complexity revealed a non-additive decline in species richness in areas of
 low complexity and the reserve in Puerto Rico. 5. Flattening of Caribbean
 coral reefs will result in substantial species losses, with few winners.
 Individual structural components have considerable value to different
 species, and their loss may have profound impacts on population responses
 of coral and fish due to identity effects of key species, which underpin
 population richness and resilience and may affect essential ecosystem
 processes and services.
description: Data Newman et
 alSheet 1: Taxa Richness:
 species richness of each taxa in each plot (row), with 7 predictor
 variables. Sheet 2: Coral Species: 6 predictor variables, with presence
 (1) absence (0) of each coral species modelled. Sheet 3: Fish Species: 7
 predictor variables, with presence/absence of each fish species
 modelled.S
 Newman Data.xlsx