and the return of vital species in the coral reef food web, such as sharks and turtles. “I predict 70-80 percent coral cover in five years,” Smith declares. At the heart of the program is the ...

While plants and some bacteria can make their own food ... too few tritons on the reef, crown-of-thorns starfish populations can explode, jeopardizing the living coral that makes up reefs.

Food webs are ecological networks of consumption ... allowing the species to form outbreaks on coral reefs.

In addition, internal waves carry nutrients from deeper water to the fore-reef, providing additional food resources for coral reef communities. Hermatypic corals are the foundation that supports ...

Loss of Biodiversity Climate change is a formidable force that threatens the rich tapestry of life on Earth, known as ...

Her research focuses on how human activity has simplified coral reef food webs and communities through time. She is currently completing her PhD in Biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology ...

If shellfish populations collapse, the animals that eat them will also suffer, with ripple effects throughout the ocean's food web. Two important planetary ecosystems, coral reefs and polar regions, ...

Having fish on coral reefs is crucial to coral health, Darling explains, as they are part of the reef food web. "There needs to be grazing herbivores like parrotfish and predators like jacks and ...

Crab behavior suggestive of wound-tending may improve coral tolerance to heat waves. For certain vulnerable corals, help is in the claws of a crab. Reporting in Proceedings Biological Sciences ...

Although they occupy less than 0.1% of the ocean floor, coral reefs are home to a quarter of all marine life - that’s more species than rainforests. Animals use reefs for shelter, food and laying eggs ...