4. Discussion

#### 4.1 Biodiversity

The marine benthic communities have been evaluated from different points of view, which respond to their distribution, interests, or incidental events. The most common assessments are those focused on establishing the community structure and distribution patterns of temperate and boreal zones [28, 29], while in the tropical coastal zone are the evaluations focused on determining the response of these communities to changes caused by seasonal fluctuations and/or physicochemical or structural modifications of the environment, by natural or anthropogenic sources [30–32]. Precisely, an indicator related to environmental services is biodiversity. It is essential to know the ecological characteristics of reefs and coralline communities, because it allows to identify the stability of these ecosystems as well as the manifestations that these present in the face of natural and anthropogenic disturbances. The most obvious indication of the effect of natural and anthropogenic disturbances on coral systems is the death of corals. However, if the damage is not massive, sometimes there is a change of species, in which other types of coral species or various organisms in the bottom, such as carbonated or fleshy algae, arrive and occupy the position of the species that originally resided in the site, causing the so-called phase change [33, 34]. Consequently, the functions of the system are affected, since the corals that arrive are not always so efficient to produce carbonate, to generate sediments or sands, and above all, to give food or refuge to other species, so even if there is live coral, the environmental service is not the same.

Meanwhile, environmental variability is one of the two forms of environmental change, with alterations in the intensity or frequency of stochastic events [35, 36]. Its raise is associated with the increment in disturbances and variability of resources, imposing challenges that have a greater influence on biological communities, than those generated by changes in the average environmental condition
