Comment on the article "Effect of human impact on coral reef herbivorous fish niche" by Leitão et al. (2023).

10.1111/1365-2664.13463 20 Pereira PH, Macedo CH, Nunes JD, Marangoni LF, Bianchini A. Effects of depth on reef fish communities: Insights of a "deep refuge hypothesis" from Southwestern Atlantic reefs. The most conspicuous organisms in the benthic cover of unprotected coastal reefs (reef tops and walls) are the reef-building corals I Montastraea cavernosa i and I Mussismilia hispida i , while in the protected Abrolhos Archipelago, the coral cover is mainly characterized by I Mussismilia braziliensis i (Francini-Filho et al. [7]; Fig. Asterisks above boxplots indicate significance level (Mann-Whitney U Test): * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, and *** p < 0.001 Differences in fish sizes between coastal and mid-shelf reefs is another key aspect that clearly influences the results of Leitão et al. ([15]). Leitão et al. ([15]) aimed to assess the effects of human impacts (namely overfishing) on the foraging niche of herbivorous reef fishes by comparing areas with different levels of protection in the largest coral reef complex in the South Atlantic: the Abrolhos Bank. [Extracted from the article]