Published in late November 2022 in the Journal Plos Biology, a study has found that fish predation on coral reefs is overwhelmingly dominated by small, diminutive predators. Through a survey of a staggering 32,218 fishes from 266 species, simulating 1 million potential predator–prey interactions, researchers discovered that the average fish predator that feeds on other fish on reefs is just 3.6cm, and the average prey just 1.5cm. While predation is widely recognised as one of the most important types of species interaction, it is rarely quantified, especially in aquatic systems. Indeed, researchers found that the vast majority of studies have exclusively quantified predation by exceptionally large predators meaning most predation events have gone unobserved and unrecorded. The results suggest there is a need for a shift in the way fish predation is viewed, and how trophic interactions shape coral reef fish communities.
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001898
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