Unraveling the processes that drive diversity patterns remains a central challenge for ecology, and an increased understanding is especially urgent to address and mitigate escalating diversity loss. Studies have primarily focused on singular taxonomic groups, but recent research has begun evaluating spatial diversity patterns across multiple taxonomic groups and suggests taxa may have congruence in their diversity patterns. Here, we use surveys of the coral reef benthic groups: scleractinian corals, macroalgae, sponges and gorgonians conducted in the Bahamian Archipelago across 27 sites to determine if there is congruence between taxonomic groups in their site-level diversity patterns (i.e. alpha diversity: number of species, and beta diversity: differences in species composition) while accounting for environmental predictors (i.e. depth, wave exposure, market gravity (i.e. human population size and distance to market), primary productivity, and grazing). Overall, we found that the beta diversities of these benthic groups were significant predictors of each other. The most consistent relationships existed with algae and coral, as their beta diversity was a significant predictor of every other taxa’s beta diversity, potentially due to their strong biotic interactions and dominance on the reef. Conversely, we found no congruence patterns in the alpha diversity of the taxa. Market gravity and exposure showed the most prevalent correlation with both alpha and beta diversity for the taxa. Overall, our results suggest that coral reef benthic taxa can have spatial congruence in species composition, but not number of species, and that future research on biodiversity trends should consider that taxa may have non-independent patterns.

解开驱动多样性模式的过程仍然是生态学的一个核心挑战，增加理解对于解决和减轻不断升级的多样性丧失尤其紧迫。研究主要集中在单一的分类群上，但最近的研究已经开始评估多个分类群的空间多样性模式，并表明分类群的多样性模式可能具有一致性。在这里，我们使用对珊瑚礁底栖群落的调查：在巴哈马群岛 27 个地点进行的石珊瑚、大型藻类、海绵和柳珊瑚，以确定分类群之间是否存在一致的地点级多样性模式（即 alpha 多样性：数量物种和贝塔多样性：物种组成的差异）同时考虑环境预测因素（即深度、波暴露、市场引力（即人口规模和到市场的距离）、初级生产力和放牧）。总的来说，我们发现这些底栖群体的β多样性是彼此的重要预测因子。藻类和珊瑚存在最一致的关系，因为它们的 β 多样性是其他分类群 β 多样性的重要预测因子，这可能是由于它们强烈的生物相互作用和对珊瑚礁的支配地位。相反，我们在分类群的 alpha 多样性中没有发现一致性模式。市场引力和敞口显示出与分类群的 alpha 和 beta 多样性最普遍的相关性。总体而言，我们的结果表明，珊瑚礁底栖类群在物种组成上具有空间一致性，但在物种数量上没有空间一致性，