Relating Habitat Characteristics and Fish Abundance and Diversity Metrics in Coral and Rocky Reef Ecosystems: Do Consistent Habitat “Drivers” Emerge?

There has been considerable research relating coral and rocky reef habitat characteristics (e.g., relief, rugosity, percent coverage of hardbottom vs sand, percent coverage of attached biota) to fish abundance and diversity metrics, particularly in coral reef ecosystems.  Despite numerous studies on this topic, it is unclear whether there are particular habitat characteristics (drivers) that are consistently (across studies and systems) and strongly related to fish abundance and diversity metrics.  The identification of such drivers, if they occur, would be particularly useful in guiding the design of future research and fishery-independent surveys focusing on fish abundance and distribution in reef ecosystems.  To determine if consistent habitat drivers occur in coral and rocky reef ecosystems, a literature review was performed to identify publications resulting from studies relating reef habitat characteristics and fish abundance and diversity metrics.  A database was generated listing the habitat characteristics considered within each study and the importance of each characteristic in explaining variability in fish abundance and diversity metrics.  The relative importance of each of the suite of habitat characteristics considered was then assessed at multiple spatial scales and compared between coral and rocky reef ecosystems.