Ecology: The Upside-Down World of Coral Reef Predators

Colin A Simpfendorfer; Michelle R Heupel

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.074

Ecology: The Upside-Down World of Coral Reef Predators

Curr Biol. 2016 Aug 8;26(15):R708-R710. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.074.

Authors

Colin A Simpfendorfer¹, Michelle R Heupel²

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture & College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Queensland, 4811, Australia. Electronic address: colin.simpfendorfer@jcu.edu.au.
² Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB 3, Townsville, 4810, Australia.

PMID: 27505241
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.074

Abstract

Examination of a large aggregation of sharks demonstrates that trophic pyramids with greater amounts of high-level predators than prey can occur on coral reefs. This is possible because the high-level predators obtain food from sources outside their home location.

Publication types

Comment

MeSH terms

Animals
Coral Reefs*
Ecology*
Humans
Sharks