Species-specific environmental preferences associated with a hump shaped diversity/temperature relationship across tropical marine fish assemblages

The study used REEF's Volunteer Fish Survey Project database to produce a new map of marine fish biodiversity across the Caribbean and tropical western Atlantic. The work, performed by scientists from the Center for Macroecology, Evolution & Climate in Denmark and the Marine Biological Association, studied REEF’s extensive data base collected by our volunteer surveyors to produce the map and find that fish biodiversity is strongly linked to sea temperatures. However, results also show that while fish biodiversity is higher in warmer waters, the very hottest sites in fact have fewer species than sites with intermediate temperatures, something not shown before in previous studies. These results will be of concern given the rising water temperatures in the region. For more details, see this REEF enews article.