News Ecosystems

Food chains in Caribbean coral reefs are getting shorter

Fish on modern coral reefs may face more competition for resources than 7,000 years ago

Yellow fish with black tails swim through the center of the photo and around a piece of elk horn coral that is shaped like antlers

A school of blue-striped grunts (Haemulon sciurus) swim around elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) in the Caribbean. Modern coral reef food chains are shorter than they were roughly 7,000 years ago, a new study suggests.

Michael Aw/Ocean Image Bank

By Erin Garcia de Jesús

This is a human-written story voiced by AI.