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Systematic global assessment of reef fish communities by the Reef Life Survey program
Citation
Edgar, GJ and Stuart-Smith, RD, Systematic global assessment of reef fish communities by the Reef Life Survey program, Scientific Data, 1 Article 140007. ISSN 2052-4463 (2014) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
Copyright 2014 Nature Publishing Group
Abstract
The assessment of patterns in macroecology, including those most relevant to global biodiversity
conservation, has been hampered by a lack of quantitative data collected in a consistent manner over the
global scale. Global analyses of species’ abundance data typically rely on records aggregated from multiple
studies where different sampling methods and varying levels of taxonomic and spatial resolution have been
applied. Here we describe the Reef Life Survey (RLS) reef fish dataset, which contains 134,759 abundance
records, of 2,367 fish taxa, from 1,879 sites in coral and rocky reefs distributed worldwide. Data were
systematically collected using standardized methods, offering new opportunities to assess broad-scale
spatial patterns in community structure. The development of such a large dataset was made possible
through contributions of investigators associated with science and conservation agencies worldwide,
and the assistance of a team of over 100 recreational SCUBA divers, who undertook training in scientific
techniques for underwater surveys and voluntarily contributed skills, expertise and their time to data
collection.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | community ecology, macroecology, biodiversity, conservation |
Research Division: | Biological Sciences |
Research Group: | Ecology |
Research Field: | Community ecology (excl. invasive species ecology) |
Objective Division: | Environmental Management |
Objective Group: | Marine systems and management |
Objective Field: | Marine biodiversity |
UTAS Author: | Edgar, GJ (Professor Graham Edgar) |
UTAS Author: | Stuart-Smith, RD (Dr Rick Stuart-Smith) |
ID Code: | 92298 |
Year Published: | 2014 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 117 |
Deposited By: | Sustainable Marine Research Collaboration |
Deposited On: | 2014-06-12 |
Last Modified: | 2017-11-01 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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