Main typologies of marine fish communities
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| Keywords |
Continental shelf
Deep sea
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| Author keywords |
Fish community; Fish assemblage; Community ecology; Community assembly rules; Coastal fishes; Coral reefs fish; Open-ocean |
| Abstract |
Community ecology is a domain of high scientific interest as it allows assessing how different species associate and co-exist, sharing resources in their habitats. This is essential to a better understanding of the functioning of ecosystems. Various conceptual and methodological approaches have been proposed for the study of biological communities, particularly fish communities. In this chapter, the conceptual bases of the structuring of fish communities are presented. The diversity of species and their dominance in numbers or rarity, as well as their life-history patterns, are profoundly different depending on the type of marine habitat. The main characteristics of fish communities of intertidal zones, coastal rocky reefs, coastal sandy areas, estuarine systems, coral reefs, continental shelves, open ocean, and deep sea are analyzed, and illustrative examples of their structuring and dynamics are presented. Finally, some knowledge gaps and future research perspectives in the domain of fish community ecology are discussed. |
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