Response to Comment on "Demographic dynamics of the smallest marine vertebrates fuel coral reef ecosystem functioning".

Brandl, Simon J; Morais, Renato A; Casey, Jordan M; Parravicini, Valeriano; Tornabene, Luke; Goatley, Christopher H R; Côté, Isabelle M; Baldwin, Carole C et al. · Science · 2019

Where this comes from

Abstract

Allgeier and Cline suggest that our model overestimates the contributions of cryptobenthic fishes to coral reef functioning. However, their 20-year model ignores the basic biological limits of population growth. If incorporated, cryptobenthic contributions to consumed fish biomass remain high (20 to 70%). Disturbance cycles and uncertainties surrounding the fate of large fishes on decadal scales further demonstrate the important role of cryptobenthic fishes.

Medical subject headings