Determining how growth rates and body size vary spatially and among reef fish species is important to understanding functional traits and demographic trade-offs. Variability in reef fish growth trajectories may be influenced by intrinsic (e.g., biological, phylogenetic) and extrinsic factors (e.g., environmental), as well as their interaction via ecological processes. To assess interspecific variation in these traits, we estimated age and growth for a guild of butterflyfishes sampled from reefs spanning ~ 10˚ degrees of latitude in the Red Sea to the adjacent Gulf of Aden. This study region was chosen because it spans environmental gradients known to influence fish life history traits and allowed for comparisons between regional versus more widespread butterflyfish species. Across the 10 study species, we found significant interspecific differences in growth. This finding contrasted with almost no intraspecific differences between populations across the study region. Moreover, we found that maximum body size was significantly correlated with the phylogenetic placement of the butterflyfish species. These patterns suggest that intrinsic factors and a high degree of ecological specialization may elicit spatially conservative demographic profiles, even when faced with considerable environmental variation across a region.

确定生长率和体型如何在空间上和珊瑚鱼物种之间变化对于理解功能特征和人口统计权衡很重要。珊瑚鱼生长轨迹的可变性可能受到内在（例如，生物、系统发育）和外在因素（例如，环境）以及它们通过生态过程的相互作用的影响。为了评估这些性状的种间变异，我们估计了从红海纬度约 10 度的珊瑚礁到邻近的亚丁湾采样的蝴蝶鱼的年龄和生长情况。选择这个研究区域是因为它跨越了已知会影响鱼类生活史特征的环境梯度，并允许在区域与更广泛的蝴蝶鱼物种之间进行比较。在 10 个研究物种中，我们发现了显着的种间生长差异。这一发现与整个研究区域的人群之间几乎没有种内差异形成鲜明对比。此外，我们发现最大体型与蝴蝶鱼物种的系统发育位置显着相关。