22. Field Guide to Select Eastern Pacific Corals and Associated Coral Reef Biota

Eastern tropical Pacific (ETP) coral habitats host functionally complex biological communities. Corals and their associated biota, from charismatic reef fishes to cryptic invertebrate infauna, drive and maintain diverse ecosystem functioning in reef environments. This chapter provides a photographic guide to key and otherwise notable species present in ETP coral habitats. The objectives of this inclusion are to both facilitate field identification and to make accessible key information (i.e. habitat, relative abundance, ecological role, geographic and depth distributions, and pertinent references) available for these coral-associated species. Represented in this guide are 11 species of algae, 102 invertebrates of which 53 are cnidarians, and 28 fishes, with bias towards comprehensive inclusion of cnidarians (corals) and fishes. Effort was made to include cryptic species easily overlooked, warranting select ex situ photographs, as well as to visually describe polymorphism and behavior encountered in the field.