While plants and some bacteria can make their own food ... too few tritons on the reef, crown-of-thorns starfish populations can explode, jeopardizing the living coral that makes up reefs.

Coral reef research has focused on the twin evils birthed by record-high greenhouse gas emissions: warming oceans and ...

So far the marine ecosystem has proven resilient to coral bleaching ... gleams against the blue Caribbean Sea. Healthy reefs support a food chain that links plankton to predators.