title: Quaternary coral reef refugia preserved fish diversity.
abstract: The most prominent pattern in global marine biogeography is the biodiversity peak in the Indo-Australian Archipelago. Yet the processes that underpin this pattern are still actively debated. By reconstructing global marine paleoenvironments over the past 3 million years on the basis of sediment cores, we assessed the extent to which Quaternary climate fluctuations can explain global variation in current reef fish richness. Comparing global historical coral reef habitat availability with the present-day distribution of 6316 reef fish species, we find that distance from stable coral reef habitats during historical periods of habitat loss explains 62% of the variation in fish richness, outweighing present-day environmental factors. Our results highlight the importance of habitat persistence during periods of climate change for preserving marine biodiversity.
authors.affiliation: University of Fribourg, Department of Biology, Chemin du Musée 10, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland. Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, 8000 C Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Loïc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pellissier
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Ecologie des Systèmes Marins Côtiers UMR 5119, CNRS, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer, UM2, UM1, cc 093, Place E. Bataillon, FR-34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
authors.forename: Fabien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Leprieur
authors.affiliation: IRD, UR 227 CoReUs, LABEX (Laboratoire d'Excellence) Corail, Laboratoire Arago, Boîte Postale 44, FR-66651 Banyuls/mer, France. CESAB (Centre de Synthèse et d'Analyse sur la Biodiversité)-FRB (Fondation pour la Recherche sur la Biodiversité), Immeuble Henri Poincaré, Domaine du Petit Arbois, FR-13857 Aix-en-Provence cedex 3, France.
authors.forename: Valeriano
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Parravicini
authors.affiliation: Centre for Macroevolution and Macroecology, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
authors.forename: Peter F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Cowman
authors.affiliation: IRD, UR 227 CoReUs, LABEX (Laboratoire d'Excellence) Corail, Laboratoire Arago, Boîte Postale 44, FR-66651 Banyuls/mer, France.
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kulbicki
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolution, Biophore Building, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Quartier Sorge, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Glenn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Litsios
authors.affiliation: Center for Ocean and Ice, Danish Meteorological Institute, Lyngbyvej 100, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Steffen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Olsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, 8000 C Aarhus, Denmark. Department of Ecology and Environment, DHI Water and Environment, 2970 Hørsholm, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mary S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Wisz
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, and School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia.
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Bellwood
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Ecologie des Systèmes Marins Côtiers UMR 5119, CNRS, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer, UM2, UM1, cc 093, Place E. Bataillon, FR-34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, and School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia. david.mouillot@univ-montp2.fr.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mouillot
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001315:Australia; D044822:Biodiversity; D057231:Climate Change; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D057894:Coral Reefs; D005399:Fishes