The authors explored the facilitation of herbivore functional groups (large excavators/bioeroders and scrapers/small excavators, parrotfishes in both cases) in coral and crustose coralline algae settlement, growth, and survival. They also investigated whether pooling all herbivores in a group or by functional groups is a stronger predictor of benthic composition. Researchers used data from 240 sites within 5 island groups in American Samoa and models to investigate how herbivorous fish biomass relates to habitat composition. They found that large parrotfishes were positively associated with coral cover and benthic composition was associated with herbivorous fish biomass based on feeding mode. The findings support the use of functional groups of herbivorous fish for reef resilience monitoring and management.

Author: Heenan, A. and I.D. Williams
Year: 2013
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PLoS ONE 8(11): e79604. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0079604.

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