Water and Structure: Coral Reef Decline with the Loss of Sharks

วันอังคารที่ 6 ธันวาคม พ.ศ. 2554

Coral Reef Decline with the Loss of Sharks

For millions of years, sharks have played an important role in the marine environment, but around the world, shark populations are declining. This has serious consequences for our oceans. Research initiated by the PEW Shark Campaign has shown correlations between the balance of shark population and the balance of the marine environment, including negative impacts on corals. The impact of those researches is of special importance for understanding how actions should be taken to protect the shark species and the health of the oceans. Production Credits: Advising: Villy Christensen Production: Jeroen Steenbeek Visualization: Dalai Felinto and Mike Pan Funding: The Pew Environment Group Sandin, SA, et al. 2008. Baselines and degradation of coral reefs in the Northern Line Islands. PLoS ONE 3(2): e1548. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Bascompte, J., Melian, CJ and Sala, E. 2005. Interaction strength combinations and the overfishing of a marine food web. PNAS 102(15): 5443-5447. www.pnas.org Newman, MJH, et al. 2006. Structure of Caribbean coral reef communities across a large gradient of fish biomass. Ecology Letters 9: 1216-1227.