Hierarchical environmental filters on reef fish diversity
The structure of local ecological communities theorized to be the result of multiple abiotic (e.g., temperature, exposure) and biotic (e.g., predation, competition) factors that control species survival and abundance. I seek to understand how the importance of various environmental factors manifest across different spatial scales ultimately controls the species richness, functional diversity, and community structure of local fish communities. Our research team is using coral reef fish communities across the Pacific to test or fine and broad-scale environmental variation structure reef fish communities across scales. We are also examining how human may be altering environment-diversity relationships and possibly leading to a functional homogenization of reef fish faunas.
Collaborators: Julia Baum (University of Victoria), Jana McPherson (Calgary Zoo Centre for Conservation and Research), Ivor Williams (NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Division)