Ocean warming is driving species poleward, causing a ‘tropicalization’ of temperate ecosystems around the world. Increasing abundances of tropical herbivores on temperate reefs could accelerate declines in habitat-forming seaweeds with devastating consequences for these important marine ecosystems. Here we document an expansion of rabbitfish (Siganus fuscescens), a tropical herbivore, on temperate reefs in Western Australia following a marine heatwave and demonstrate their impact on local kelp forests (Ecklonia radiata). Before the heatwave there were no rabbitfish and low rates of kelp herbivory but after the heatwave rabbitfish were common at most reefs and consumption of kelp was high. Herbivory increased 30-fold and kelp abundance decreased by 70% at reefs where rabbitfish had established. In contrast, where rabbitfish were absent, kelp abundance and herbivory did not change. Video-analysis confirmed that rabbitfish were the main consumers of kelp, followed by silver drummers (Kyphosus sydneyanus), a temperate herbivore. These results represent a likely indirect effect of the heatwave beyond its acute impacts, and they provide evidence that range-shifting tropical herbivores can contribute to declines in habitat-forming seaweeds within a few years of their establishment.

Seagrass meadows play a key ecological role as nursery and feeding grounds for multiple fish species. Underwater Visual Census (UVC) has been historically used as the non-extractive method to characterize seagrass fish communities, however, less intrusive methodologies such as Remote Underwater Video (RUV) are gaining interest and could be particularly useful for seagrass habitats, where juvenile fish camouflage among the vegetation and could easily hide or flee from divers. Here we compared the performance of UVC and RUV methodologies in assessing the fish communities of two seagrass meadows with low and high canopy density. We found that RUV detected more species and fish individuals than UVC, particularly on the habitat with higher seagrass density, which sheltered more juveniles, especially herbivorous, and adult piscivorous of commercial importance, evidencing significant differences in energy flow from macrophytes to predators between seagrass habitats, and also differences in the ecosystem services they can provide. Considering the ongoing worldwide degradation of seagrass ecosystems, our results strongly suggest that fish surveys using RUV in ecologic and fisheries programs would render more accurate information and would be more adequate to inform the conservation planning of seagrass meadows around the world.

The tropicalization of temperate marine ecosystems can lead to increased herbivory rates, reducing the standing stock of seaweeds and potentially causing increases in detritus production. However, long-term studies analysing these processes associated with the persistence of tropical herbivores in temperate reefs are lacking. We assessed the seasonal variation in abundances, macrophyte consumption, feeding modes and defecation rates of the range-extending tropical rabbitfish Siganus fuscescens and the temperate silver drummer Kyphosus sydneyanus and herring cale Olisthops cyanomelas on tropicalized reefs of Western Australia. Rabbitfish overwintered in temperate reefs, consumed more kelp and other macrophytes in all feeding modes, and defecated more during both summer and winter than the temperate herbivores. Herbivory and defecation increased with rabbitfish abundance, but this was dependent on temperature, with higher rates attained by big schools during summer and lower rates in winter. Still, rabbitfish surpassed temperate herbivores, leading to a fivefold acceleration in the transformation of macrophyte standing stock to detritus, a function usually attributed to sea urchins in kelp forests. Our results suggest that further warming and tropicalization will not only increase primary consumption and affect the habitat structure of temperate reefs but also increase detritus production, with the potential to modify energy pathways.

Climate change is modifying species distributions around the world, forcing some species poleward, where they can alter trophic interactions. Many tropical herbivorous fishes have successfully expanded their ranges into temperate ecosystems, and while it is clear they drive increases in herbivory rates in specific localities, little is known about how they might affect the diversity of herbivory functions across large spatial scales, considering their interaction with assemblages of native herbivores in temperate habitats. We assessed the spatial overlap and habitat associations of native temperate and range‐expanding tropical herbivorous fishes in six subregions of south‐western Australia to determine how incursions of tropical species may have affected the diversity, redundancy (index of uniqueness) and the ‘spatial extent’ (addition of functions in new areas) and ‘intensity’ (increasing density of functional groups) of specific herbivory functions in recipient ecosystems. Tropical herbivores had high abundances in temperate ecosystems, forming schools from 40 (parrotfish) to 200 (rabbitfish) individuals strongly associated with seagrass meadows and reefs with high cover of turf algae. Overlap with temperate herbivores was highest in the northern subregions, forming unique assemblages, with no apparent species displacements. The addition of tropical species increased functional diversity and uniqueness (the complement of redundancy), introducing novel herbivory functions to many locations. Seagrass browsing increased in spatial extent (27%) and intensity (15×), while seaweed browsing and grazing increased in intensity by up to 2.5× in regions with high abundances of tropical herbivores. Our results suggest that the diversity, intensity and spatial extent of different herbivory functions can change as tropical species with different habitat affinities, behaviours and diets shift their distributions poleward. Changes in functional redundancy are likely to be heterogeneous in space and might not increase initially because the diversity of herbivory functions is relatively low in some temperate marine ecosystems. However, there is the potential for greater redundancy as further tropical species arrive, their abundances increase and the spatial and functional overlap of communities rises. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.