[Coral-List] pelagic carbon dominant source for reef predatory fish

[David Blakeway]

There is also this MA Chartock 1983 article: The role of Acanthurus
guttatus in cycling algal production to detritus
<https://www.jstor.org/stable/2387954>.
But Chartock is describing nutrient and energy cycling within the reef
whereas Skinner et al. 2021 are examining pelagic input to the reef. So a
bit different, although relevant and yes perhaps could have been cited.
The Skinner et al. isotopic analyses seem thorough and reliable and their
figures 3 and 4 show a strong pelagic planktonic signal in the
predatory fish but I don't think they emphasise clearly enough that they
only sampled small groupers. Don't those small groupers eat primarily
planktivorous fish? If so that would bias the results. Also they sampled by
killing. I don't want to seem too sanctimonious about that but can't stable
isotope analysis be undertaken on scales or biopsy?