Regional-scale disturbances drive long-term decline of inshore coral reef fish assemblages in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

Anthropogenic pressure is increasing the variety and frequency of environmental disturbance events, limiting recovery and leading to long-term declines in wild plant and animal populations. Coral reefs and associated fish assemblages are inherently dynamic due to their susceptibility to a host of disturbances, but regional-scale nuances in the drivers of long-term change frequently remain poorly resolved. Here, we examine the effects of multiple potential drivers of change in coral reef fish assemblages across 4 inshore regions of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP), Australia, over 12-14 years (2007-2021). Each region had a unique disturbance history, in conjunction with and long-term changes in physical habitat variables. Phases of recovery were apparent in the years between disturbance events at all locations, but these were not long enough to prevent substantial declines in reef fish density (by 33-72%) and species richness (by 41-75%) throughout the study period. The main dr..., The data were collected at four inshore island locations of the Great Barrier Reef, located 10 - 30 km from the mainland coast and spanning 4.5 degrees of latitude, from 18.603S to 23.19S. Standardised underwater visual census protocols were used to survey benthic and fish assemblages at long-term monitoring sites on fringing reefs of the Palm Islands (30 sites), Magnetic Island (8 sites), Whitsunday Islands (42 sites) and Keppel Islands (20 sites) (Figure 1) between 4 and 8 times during the period 2007 - 2021. The Palm and Whitsunday Islands were surveyed in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018, with an additional survey in 2017 at the Whitsunday Islands, the Keppel Islands were surveyed in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2021, and Magnetic Island reefs were surveyed just 4 times due to weather constraints, in 2007, 2012, 2016 and 2019 (Table S1). Within each island group, monitoring sites were evenly distributed among reefs that are open to fishing (General Use an..., , # **Data from: Regional-scale disturbances drive long-term decline of inshore coral reef fish assemblages in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park**

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jsxksn0k6](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jsxksn0k6)

**Description of the data and file structure**

`Ceccarelli_et_al_site_coordinates.csv`: coordinates of sites

`Selected_fish_benthic_physical_sitelevel_2021.csv`: These data are at the level of sites, situated at various locations around the island groups (region). Five transects were used to collect data at each site. Variables from “lut.arge” to “Labrichthys” are fish species, and values in the cells are mean density per 1000m2.

| **Variable label** | **Description** |
| :---------...,