Response to Comment on "Demographic dynamics of the smallest marine vertebrates fuel coral reef ecosystem functioning".

Allgeier and Cline suggest that our model overestimates the contributions of cryptobenthic fishes to coral reef functioning. However, their 20-year model ignores the basic biological limits of population growth. If incorporated, cryptobenthic contributions to consumed fish biomass remain high (20 to 70%). Disturbance cycles and uncertainties surrounding the fate of large fishes on decadal scales further demonstrate the important role of cryptobenthic fishes.