Digital Commons Network^™

Spatial Scaling Properties Of Coral Reef Benthic Communities, Helen V. Ford, Jamison M. Gove, Andrew J. Davies, Nicholas A.J. Graham, John R. Healey, Eric J. Conklin, Gareth J. Williams

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The spatial structure of ecological communities on tropical coral reefs across seascapes and geographies have historically been poorly understood. Here we addressed this for the first time using spatially expansive and thematically resolved benthic community data collected around five uninhabited central Pacific oceanic islands, spanning 6° latitude and 17° longitude. Using towed-diver digital image surveys over ~140 linear km of shallow (8–20 m depth) tropical reef, we highlight the autocorrelated nature of coral reef seascapes. Benthic functional groups and hard coral morphologies displayed significant spatial clustering (positive autocorrelation) up to kilometre-scales around all islands, in some instances dominating entire sections …