SHARKS are vital for the health of coral reefs, a model of the food web in a Caribbean reef suggests.
According to the model, created by Enric Sala of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, and colleagues, the removal of top predators allows lesser predators such as groupers to thrive, leading to a reduction in the number of algal feeders such as parrotfish. That makes reefs more vulnerable to disturbances that kill corals, such as disease, pollution and global warming (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 102, p 5443).
The study suggests that the…
