Biodiversity: Coral reef food chains cut short (Nature)
12 February 2026
The food chains on modern Caribbean coral reefs may have shortened by up to 70% compared with those on their prehistoric counterparts, according to research published in Nature. The findings suggest that modern reefs could be increasingly vulnerable to external stressors and ecosystem collapse.
Coral reefs are vital marine ecosystems, but they are under threat from factors including climate change, overfishing and disease. One of the most crucial aspects of reef biodiversity is the large and varied selection of feeding organisms within the ecosystem and how they interact with each other, known as trophic diversity. It is unclear whether the threats to coral reefs have affected the diets of the fish in the ecosystem, and research is limited as many of these threats began before modern records were kept.
Jessica Lueders-Dumont and colleagues compare the trophic structure of modern and prehistoric (approximately 7,000-year-old) coral reefs in Panama and the Dominican Republic. They performed nitrogen isotope analysis on a total of 136 fossilized and modern fish ear stones (otoliths) and corals from Panama and the Dominican Republic, as the ratio of different nitrogen isotopes reflects the position of an organism in the food chain. Analysis of the samples found that modern food chains are approximately 60–70% shorter than their counterparts on prehistoric reefs, with species that were previously higher in the food chain moving into lower positions. Additionally, the authors observed a reduction in dietary variation on modern reefs compared with on prehistoric reefs. The authors suggest that this reduction is probably due to a loss of dietary specialization across species (meaning more organisms are competing for a communal pool of resources) and reduced prey availability at the upper and lower ends of the food chain.
The authors caution that fewer trophic pathways and shortened food chains could leave modern Caribbean reefs less equipped to handle changes in the environment or food availability.
- Article
- Open access
- Published: 11 February 2026
Lueders-Dumont, J.A., O’Dea, A., Dillon, E.M. et al. Fossil isotope evidence for trophic simplification on modern Caribbean reefs. Nature (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-10077-z
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