Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, 6230–6235 (2016)https://doi.org/doi:10.1073/pnas.1524465113

Credit: © CRISTINA QUICLA / STRINGER / AFP / GETTY

Fish play key functional roles in aquatic ecosystems and provide protein for up to a billion people. Unfortunately mounting pressures on marine ecosystems and biodiversity are undermining these vital functions.

J. Emmett Duffy from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Centre and co-workers use the Reef Life Survey's global database of around 4,500 standardized fish surveys to test the importance of biodiversity to fish production relative to 25 environmental drivers.

They found that temperature, biodiversity and human influence together explain about 47% of the global variation in reef fish biomass. Fish species richness and functional diversity were strong and robust predictors of fish biomass. Interestingly, diversity and climate factors were found to interact, with biomass of diverse communities less affected by rising and variable temperatures than species-poor communities, suggesting that biodiversity can act to buffer global fish biomass from the impacts of climate change. These findings emphasize the importance of marine biodiversity conservation in the face of a changing ocean.