the ecology of coral reef top predators in the papahānaumokuākea marine national monument珊瑚礁的生态papahānaumokuākea海洋国家纪念碑的顶级食肉动物.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Marine Biology Volume 2011, Article ID 725602, 14 pages doi:10.1155/2011/725602 Review Article The Ecology of Coral Reef Top Predators in ¯ ¯ the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument Jonathan J. Dale,1, 2 Carl G. Meyer,1 and Christian E. Clark1 1 Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, P.O. Box 1346, Coconut Island, Kaneohe, HI 96744, USA 2 Department of Zoology, Edmonson Hall, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Jonathan J. Dale, jjdale@ Received 16 June 2010; Accepted 5 October 2010 Academic Editor: Robert J. Toonen Copyright © 2011 Jonathan J. Dale et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ¯ ¯ Coral reef habitats in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (PMNM) are characterized by abundant top-level predators such as sharks and jacks. The predator assemblage is dominated both numerically and in biomass by giant trevally (Caranx ignobilis) and Galapagos sharks (Carcharhinus galapagensis). A lower diversity of predatory teleosts, particularly groupers and snappers, distinguishes the PMNM from other remote, unfished atolls in the Pacific. Most coral reef top predators are site attached to a “home” atoll, but move extensively within these atolls. Abundances of the most common sharks and jacks are highest in atoll fore reef habitats. Top predators within the PMNM forage on a diverse range of prey and exert top-down control over shallow-water re