Functional diversity, redundancy and vulnerability of reef fish assemblages in the Galápagos Archipelago

Abstract

This research investigated marine communities and ecosystem functioning in the Galapagos by studying reef fish functional diversity. Spatial patterns in function reflected biogeographical species compositions. A low richness of functional roles was supplemented by a high number of species in specialised functional roles. However, Galapagos reef ecosystems are still vulnerable to functional diversity loss following species loss due to a low redundancy and high sensitivity of reef fish functional roles.