Our results support the idea that co-occurrence of herbivorous fish functional groups offers additional benefits to reef benthic state. Protecting herbivores in an effort to preserve coral reef health must consider fine-scale community composition as well as overall abundance.

We identify farming damselfish and excavating parrotfish as potential key determinants of the coral reef benthic state and highlight that co-occurrence of cropping and scraping herbivores may promote coral accretion

Using diversity–interaction models, we found that functional group co-occurrence, in addition to diversity, was correlated with reduced algal cover and increased coral accretion. (Colours represent proportional abundance of different functional groups

Using data from 601 sites across the Western Atlantic, we investigated how the co-occurrence of different functional groups offers additional benefits to diversity-driven ecosystem function.

Our take on how living in groups affects the causes and consequences of specialisation. Out in @asab_tweets