The mechanisms that govern fauna-habitat associations across multiple spatial scales remain largely undefined. Can environmental factors structure fauna-habitat associations over both local and global spatial scales, alongside biogeographical processes and patterns? We compare the extent to which the use of mangroves by fishes is consistent within and between biogeographic locations, and whether any similarities and differences can be attributed to the environmental context of those forests, such as the physical environment, seascape composition and constraints on access by fishes. We focus on three important proxies of these structuring forces for fish—salinity, distance to reefs and tidal amplitude. Using directly comparable remote underwater visual census from a range of diverse environmental contexts in the Central and Eastern Indo-Pacific, we examine similarity in the family-level taxonomic composition of fish assemblages in mangrove forests. Local environmental context appears to explain similarities and differences in mangrove association by fishes at both regional and local scales across the Indo-Pacific. There were strong consistencies in taxonomic composition in similar environmental contexts despite geographic separation. Tidal amplitude was a powerful explanatory factor that interacted with both distance to reef and salinity in partitioning variation in fish assemblage structure. Substantial differences in the use of mangroves between regions appear to be independent of historical biogeography, relating instead to local context. Our findings suggest that the effects of local context on habitat suitability can play out over biogeographical scales, and global similarities in fauna-habitat associations may be partially explained by comparable environmental contexts, with important management implications.

控制跨多个空间尺度的动物-栖息地关联的机制在很大程度上仍未定义。环境因素能否与生物地理过程和模式一起，在本地和全球空间尺度上构建动物-栖息地关联？我们比较了鱼类对红树林的利用在生物地理区域内和之间的一致性程度，以及是否有任何异同可归因于这些森林的环境背景，例如物理环境、海景组成和对访问的限制鱼。我们关注这些鱼类结构力的三个重要指标——盐度、到珊瑚礁的距离和潮汐幅度。使用来自印度太平洋中部和东部一系列不同环境背景的直接可比较的远程水下视觉普查，我们研究了红树林中鱼类组合的科级分类组成的相似性。当地环境背景似乎可以解释整个印度洋-太平洋区域和当地规模的鱼类在红树林关联中的异同。尽管地理分离，但在相似的环境背景下，分类学组成具有很强的一致性。潮汐振幅是一个强有力的解释因素，它与珊瑚礁的距离和盐度在鱼类组合结构的划分变化中相互作用。区域之间红树林利用的巨大差异似乎与历史生物地理无关，而是与当地环境有关。我们的研究结果表明，当地环境对栖息地适宜性的影响可以在生物地理尺度上发挥作用，