Data from: The shape of success in a turbulent world: wave exposure filtering of coral reef herbivory

While environmental filters are well-known factors influencing community assembly, the extent to which these modify species functions, and entire ecosystem processes, is poorly understood.
Focusing on a high-diversity system, we ask whether environmental filtering has ecosystem-wide effects beyond community assembly. We characterise a coral reef herbivorous fish community for swimming performance based on ten functional traits derived from fish morphology. We then investigate whether wave exposure modifies the functional make-up of herbivory, and the absolute and relative feeding frequency of distinct feeding functional groups.
Herbivorous fish species conformed to either laterally compressed or fusiform body plans, which differ in their morphological design to minimise drag. High wave exposure selectively limited the feeding function of the deepest body shapes with highest caudal thrust efficiency, and favoured fusiform bodies irrespective of pectoral fin shape.
Traditionally recognised herbivore feeding functional groups (i.e. grazers–detritivores and scrapers–small excavators) differed in swimming performance, and in their capacity to feed consistently across levels of wave exposure. We therefore emphasise the distinctness of their ecological niche and functional complementarity.
Species within the same feeding functional group also had contrasting responses to wave exposure. We thereby reveal a further ecological dimension of niche partitioning, and reiterate the risk of assuming functional redundancy among species with a common feeding mode.
Contrasting responses of species within feeding functional roles (i.e. response diversity) allowed the preservation of critical trophic functions throughout the gradient (e.g. macroalgal browsing), and likely explained why overall levels of herbivory were robust to filtering. Whether ecosystem functioning will remain robust under the additive effects of environmental stress and human-induced disturbances remains to be tested.

尽管环境过滤因子是影响群落构建的已知关键因素，但这些因子对物种功能乃至整个生态系统过程的修饰程度，目前仍鲜为人知。
本研究聚焦高多样性生态系统，探讨环境过滤是否会对群落构建之外的生态系统产生广泛影响。我们基于鱼类形态学提取的10项功能性状，对珊瑚礁植食性鱼类群落的游泳性能进行了表征。随后，我们研究了波浪暴露水平是否会改变植食作用的功能组成，以及不同摄食功能群的绝对与相对摄食频率。
植食性鱼类物种可分为侧扁体型与纺锤体型两类，二者的形态设计分别以最小化水流阻力为目标，存在显著差异。高波浪暴露水平会选择性限制那些体高最大、尾鳍推进效率最高物种的摄食功能，且无论胸鳍形态如何，均倾向于筛选纺锤体型物种。
传统认知中的植食者摄食功能群（即刮食者-腐食者与刮食者-小型挖掘者）在游泳性能以及不同波浪暴露水平下的稳定摄食能力上存在差异。因此，我们强调其生态位的独特性与功能互补性。
同一摄食功能群内的物种对波浪暴露水平的响应也存在显著差异。这进一步揭示了生态位分化的另一生态维度，并提醒我们：不能仅凭摄食模式相同就认定物种间存在功能冗余。
摄食功能角色内物种的差异化响应（即响应多样性）使得关键营养功能（如大型藻类啃食）在整个波浪暴露梯度上得以保留，这也很可能解释了为何整体植食作用水平对环境过滤具有较强的抵抗力。在环境胁迫与人为干扰的叠加效应下，生态系统功能是否仍能保持稳定，仍有待进一步验证。