Tiny fish fuel the reef! Our article published today in Science highlights the overlooked but important contribution of my favorite fishes — tiny, cryptobenthic reef fishes — to coral reef fish biomass production. Check out the paper here, or check out Ed Yong’s story in the Atlantic for a lighter read.

What drives rates of macroalgal removal on coral reefs? My student Zachary Topor used a meta-analysis and structural equation model to show that herbivore biodiversity is the strongest driver of macroalgal browsing and that herbivore diversity, in turn, is boosted by marine protected areas. Read the paper here.

What do we mean by “function”? Our paper in Functional Ecology asks this question from the perspective of coral reef fishes. Many hours of agonizing discussions have led to this diatribe about reef fish functionality. Check out the paper here.

The Cryptopedia is published! Check out our review on the ecology and evolution of cryptobenthic reef fishes, published in Biological Reviews!