Understanding the capacity of organisms to cope with projected global warming through acclimation and adaptation is critical to predicting their likely future persistence. While recent research has shown that developmental acclimation of metabolic attributes to ocean warming is possible, our understanding of the plasticity of key fitness-associated traits, such as reproductive performance, is lacking. We show that while the reproductive ability of a tropical reef fish is highly sensitive to increases in water temperature, reproductive capacity at +1.5°C above present-day was improved to match fish maintained at present-day temperatures when fish complete their development at the higher temperature. However, reproductive acclimation was not observed in fish reared at +3.0°C warmer than present-day, suggesting limitations to the acclimation possible within one generation. Surprisingly, the improvements seen in reproduction were not predicted by the oxygen- and capacity-limited thermal tolerance hypothesis. Specifically, pairs reared at +1.5°C, which showed the greatest capacity for reproductive acclimation, exhibited no acclimation of metabolic attributes. Conversely, pairs reared at +3.0°C, which exhibited acclimation in resting metabolic rate, demonstrated little capacity for reproductive acclimation. Our study suggests that understanding the acclimation capacity of reproductive performance will be critically important to predicting the impacts of climate change on biological systems.

In the past 100 years since the birth of fisheries oceanography, research on the early life history of fishes, particularly the larval stage, has been extensive, and much progress has been made in identifying the mechanisms by which factors such as feeding success, predation, or dispersal can influence larval survival. However, in recent years, the study of fish early life history has undergone a major and, arguably, necessary shift, resulting in a growing body of research aimed at understanding the consequences of climate change and other anthropogenically induced stressors. Here, we review these efforts, focusing on the ways in which fish early life stages are directly and indirectly affected by increasing temperature; increasing CO 2 concentrations, and ocean acidification; spatial, temporal, and magnitude changes in secondary production and spawning; and the synergistic effects of fishing and climate change. We highlight how these and other factors affect not only larval survivorship, but also the dispersal of planktonic eggs and larvae, and thus the connectivity and replenishment of fish subpopulations. While much of this work is in its infancy and many consequences are speculative or entirely unknown, new modeling approaches are proving to be insightful by predicting how early life stage survival may change in the future and how such changes will impact economically and ecologically important fish populations. CAPTION. Larval stage of selected fish (from left to right): armored searobin, largetooth flounder, bythitid brotula, and little tunny. Photos by Cedric Guigand

33The iconic orange clownfish, Amphiprion percula, is a model organism for studying the 34 ecology and evolution of reef fishes, including patterns of population connectivity, sex 35 change, social organization, habitat selection and adaptation to climate change. Notably, the 36 orange clownfish is the only reef fish for which a complete larval dispersal kernel has been 37 established and was the first fish species for which it was demonstrated that anti-predator 38 responses of reef fishes could be impaired by ocean acidification. Despite its importance, 39 molecular resources for this species remain scarce and until now it lacked a reference genome respectively. This makes it one of the most contiguous and complete fish genome assemblies 47 currently available. The genome was annotated with 26,597 protein coding genes and contains 48 96% of the core set of conserved actinopterygian orthologs. The availability of this reference 49 genome assembly as a community resource will further strengthen the role of the orange 50 clownfish as a model species for research on the ecology and evolution of reef fishes. 51 52 53 not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.The copyright holder for this preprint (which was . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/278267 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Mar. 7, 2018; 3 Introduction 54The orange clownfish, Amphiprion percula, which was immortalized in the film "Finding 55Nemo", is arguably the most recognized fish on Earth. It is also one of the most important 56 species for studying the ecology and evolution of coral reef fishes. The orange clownfish is 57 used as a model species to study patterns and processes of social organization (Buston,

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Ecological Society of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Ecology.Abstract. We investigated the effects of interspecific competition on abundance, habitat partitioning, and coexistence of six closely related species of gobies (genus Gobiodon) that inhabit a range of coral species at Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. After documenting the extent of overlap in habitat use among pairs of species in the field, we used a combination of field and laboratory experiments to investigate the relationship between these patterns and the occurrence of interspecific competition. Experiments in aquaria tested the ability of five of the species to compete against Gobiodon histrio, the apparent competitive dominant, including the effects of body size and prior residency. A manipulative field experiment, in which abundance of G. histrio was reduced, tested whether competition with this species limits the abundance of the other five species.Two species competed for space with G. histrio in the field, yet overlap in habitat use with G. histrio was high for one of these species (G. axillaris) and low for the other (G. brochus). In aquaria, G. axillaris and G. histrio preferred the same species of coral and had equivalent, size-based, competitive abilities. The coexistence of G. axillaris and G. histrio at the scale of tens of meters on the reef can thus be explained by a competitive lottery model. However, differential distributions of these two species across the reef flat and reef crest suggest that resource partitioning or habitat selection at larger spatial scales may also be important to their coexistence. In aquaria, G. brochus was an inferior competitor to G. histrio and could only gain access to the preferred species of coral through an advantage in body size or prior residency. Low overlap in habitat use between G. brochus and G. histrio in the field appears to result from niche shifts by the subordinate competitor only.The field experiment indicated that the other three species did not compete for space with G. histrio. Experiments in aquaria demonstrated that G. rivulatus and G. histrio exhibited low overlap in habitat use and did not compete, because they preferred different species of coral. In contrast, G. unicolor and G. histrio exhibited high overlap in habitat use but did not compete, because they were able to cohabit the same coral colonies without affecting each other. In aquaria, G. quinquestrigatus and G. histrio preferred the same coral species; however, in a field recolonization experiment, coral colonies previously occupied by G. quinquestrigatus were rarely recolonized by G. histrio, indicating that these species coexist ...

Abstract:In the terrestrial environment, endemic species and isolated populations of widespread species have the highest rates of extinction partly due to their low genetic diversity. To determine if this pattern holds in the marine environment, we examined genetic diversity in endemic coral reef angelfishes and isolated populations of widespread species. Specifically, this study tested the prediction that angelfish (genus: Centropyge) populations at Christmas and Cocos Islands have low genetic diversity. Analyses of a 436 base pair fragment of the mtDNA control region revealed that the endemic C. joculator exhibited high haplotype (h > 0.98 at both locations) and nucleotide (Christmas % = 3.63, Cocos % = 9.99) diversity. Similarly, isolated populations of widespread angelfishes (C. bispinosa and C. flavicauda) had high haplotype (h > 0.98) and nucleotide (% = 2.81 and % = 5.78%, respectively) diversity. Therefore, in contrast to terrestrial patterns, endemic and isolated populations of widespread angelfishes do not have low genetic diversity, rather their haplotype and nucleotide diversities were among the highest reported for marine fishes. High genetic diversity should reduce extinction risk in these species as it OPEN ACCESS Diversity 2013, 5 40 could provide the evolutionary potential to adapt to the rapidly changing environmental conditions forecast for coral reefs.

The increase in average environmental temperatures as a result of climate change poses a considerable risk to many species, as temperatures may surpass upper thermal limits (Dahlke et al., 2020;Pinsky et al., 2019;Tewksbury et al., 2008). Some species will survive these environmental changes through selection of heatresistant genotypes and heritable transmission of thermally suited

Organisms that change sex during their lifetime use a variety of strategies--they may be female first, male first or even repetitive sex changers. Natural selection should favour those individuals that change sex at a time when it increases their reproductive value. Allsop and West claim that the relative timing of sex change is invariant across all animals, with individuals changing sex at 72% of their maximum body size, and infer that natural selection for sex change must therefore be fundamentally similar across animals. Here we explain why we believe that Allsop and West's claims are not supported by their analysis or by their empirical data.

While there is increasing evidence for habitat specialization in coral reef fishes, the extent to which different corals support different fish communities is not well understood. Here we quantitatively assess the relative importance of different coral species in structuring fish communities and evaluate whether sampling scale and coral colony size affect the perceived strength of fish-habitat relationships. Fish communities present on colonies of eight coral species (Porites cylindrica, Echinopora horrida, Hydnophora rigida, Stylophora pistillata, Seriatopora hystrix, Acropora formosa, A. tenuis and A. millepora) were examined in the Lizard Island lagoon, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Additionally, the differences in fish communities supported by three coral species (P. cylindrica, E. horrida, H. rigida) were investigated at three spatial scales of sampling (2x2 m, 1x1 m, 0.5x0.5 m). Substantial differences in fish communities were observed across the different coral species, with E. horrida and H. rigida supporting the most fish species and individuals. Coral species explained more of the variability in fish species richness (20.9–53.6%), than in fish abundance (0–15%). Most coral species supported distinctive fish communities, with dissimilarities ranging from 50 to 90%. For three focal coral species, a greater amount of total variation in fish species richness and fish abundance was evident at a larger scale of sampling. Together, these results indicate that the structure of reef fish communities is finely tuned to coral species. Loss of preferred coral species could have profound effects on reef fish biodiversity, potentially more so than would be predicted on the basis of declining coral cover alone.