Phylogeny, body morphology, and trophic level shape intestinal traits in coral reef fishes.

Trait-based approaches are increasingly used to study species assemblages and understand ecosystem functioning. The strength of these approaches lies in the appropriate choice of functional traits that relate to the functions of interest. However, trait-function relationships are often supported by weak empirical evidence.Processes related to digestion and nutrient assimilation are particularly challenging to integrate into trait-based approaches. In fishes, intestinal length is commonly used to describe these functions. Although there is broad consensus concerning the relationship between fish intestinal length and diet, evolutionary and environmental forces have shaped a diversity of intestinal morphologies that is not captured by length alone.Focusing on coral reef fishes, we investigate how evolutionary history and ecology shape intestinal morphology. Using a large dataset encompassing 142 species across 31 families collected in French Polynesia, we test how phylogeny, body morphology, and diet relate to three intestinal morphological traits: intestinal length, diameter, and surface area.We demonstrate that phylogeny, body morphology, and trophic level explain most of the interspecific variability in fish intestinal morphology. Despite the high degree of phylogenetic conservatism, taxonomically unrelated herbivorous fishes exhibit similar intestinal morphology due to adaptive convergent evolution. Furthermore, we show that stomachless, durophagous species have the widest intestines to compensate for the lack of a stomach and allow passage of relatively large undigested food particles.Rather than traditionally applied metrics of intestinal length, intestinal surface area may be the most appropriate trait to characterize intestinal morphology in functional studies.

Nutrient pollution alters the gut microbiome of a territorial reef fish.

Human-induced nutrient pollution threatens coral reefs worldwide. Although eutrophication disrupts coral microbiomes, often leading to coral mortality, it is unknown whether eutrophication impacts the microbiomes of other coral reef organisms. Of particular interest are herbivorous fishes, whose algae consumption is critical in maintaining healthy corals. To examine the effects of eutrophication on fish gut microbiomes, we experimentally enriched territories of Stegastes nigricans, a predominantly herbivorous damselfish that farms turf algae. Using 16S RNA sequencing, we demonstrate that hindgut and foregut microbiomes have significantly higher alpha diversity in nutrient-enriched territories as compared to unenriched controls. S. nigricans gut microbiomes also exhibited significantly different compositions across treatments. In contrast, these changes were not observed in the microbiomes of the turf algae consumed by S. nigricans, indicating that the gut microbiome changes were autochthonous. Combined, our results provide a novel example of endogenous microbial shifts in wild vertebrates caused by simulated anthropogenic stress.

Individual back-calculated size-at-age based on otoliths from Pacific coral reef fish species.

Somatic growth is a critical biological trait for organismal, population, and ecosystem-level processes. Due to its direct link with energetic demands, growth also represents an important parameter to estimate energy and nutrient fluxes. For marine fishes, growth rate information is most frequently derived from sagittal otoliths, and most of the available data stems from studies on temperate species that are targeted by commercial fisheries. Although the analysis of otoliths is a powerful tool to estimate individual growth, the time-consuming nature of otolith processing is one barrier for collection of comprehensive datasets across multiple species. This is especially true for coral reef fishes, which are extremely diverse. Here, we provide back-calculated size-at-age estimates (including measures of uncertainty) based on sagittal otoliths from 710 individuals belonging to 45 coral reef fish species from French Polynesia. In addition, we provide Von Bertalanffy growth parameters which are useful to predict community level biomass production.