Hoey, Andrew S., Taylor, Brett M., Hoey, Jessica, and Fox, Rebecca J. (2018) Parrotfishes, are we still scraping the surface? Emerging topics and future research directions. In: Hoey, Andrew S., and Bonaldo, Roberta M., (eds.) Biology of Parrotfishes. Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL, USA, pp. 407-416.

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Abstract

Parrotfish (Scarinae, Labridae) are found on almost every coral reef of the world. It is this ubiquity, coupled with the uniqueness of their functional impact on the ecosystem, which makes them arguably one of the most important groups of fishes on coral reefs. With the morphological innovation of a jaw that has the power to bite through carbonates (Wainwright and Price, Chapter 2), and a pharyngeal apparatus that can grind corals and carbonate rocks into sand particles (Gobalet, Chapter 1), no other group of fishes is so inextricably linked to the structural dynamics of their ecosystem (Malella and Fox, Chapter 8). These innovations and unique ecological roles have stimulated much scientific interest in the parrotfishes. Indeed, the number of scientific publications in the past 50 years that have considered parrotfishes (697 publications) is almost double that of many other reef fish families (e.g., surgeonfishes: 326, rabbitfishes: 353, butterflyfishes: 384) over the same time period (Web of Science – June 2017). This body of work has provided a firm grounding in understanding the evolution, morphology, distribution and functional ecology of this group; however our understanding of several other topics is limited.

Item ID:	55269
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Research - B1)
ISBN:	978-1-4822-2401-6
Date Deposited:	04 Sep 2018 02:20
FoR Codes:	31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310305 Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) @ 100%
SEO Codes:	96 ENVIRONMENT > 9608 Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity > 960808 Marine Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity @ 100%
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