As I was perusing the dark reaches of the internet for interesting bits of science and I came across this interesting paper that was recently published:
Fear of sharks influences seaweed growth on Fijian coral reefs (link here).
While it seems self evident, we now have some interesting evidence from Fiji that this fear of sharks (by fish) can have a pretty significant impact on coral ecosystems. Why is this a big deal? Well, it turns out that we don’t actually know that much about how sharks actually shape the ecosystems they live in, and this may be an important first step in understanding the impact sharks have on the health of a reef. Cool beans!