Dominance of endemics in the reef fish assemblages of the Hawaiian Archipelago

Aim: Species ranges provide a valuable foundation for resolving biogeographic regions, evolutionary processes, and extinction risks. To inform conservation priorities, here we develop the first bioregionalization based on reef fish abundance of the Hawaiian Archipelago, which spans nearly 10° of latitude across 2,400 km, including 8 high volcanic islands in the populated main Hawaiian Islands (MHI), and 10 low islands (atolls, shoals, and islets) in the remote northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI)..

Location: The Hawaiian Archipelago.

Taxon: Fishes (276 taxa).

Methods: We compiled 5,316 visual fish surveys at depths of 1-30 m from throughout the Hawaiian Archipelago. Geographic range (km2) for each species was measured as extent of occurrence (EOO) and area of occurrence (AOO). PERMANOVA and PCO were used to investigate drivers of fish assemblage structure. Distance-based multivariate analyses were used to evaluate the relationship between fish assemblage structure and predictor...