As universities increasingly adopt digital tools and automated analytics systems, attention often centers on these tools’ gains in accuracy and efficiency. Far less visible, however, is another critical dimension: the additional work students must do to produce, organize, and interpret their own data within these systems.

Coral reefs are undoubtedly in crisis. Scientists have documented concerning coral bleaching events, dramatic declines in coral cover, fish and shark populations across the Caribbean over recent decades. But a critical question has remained unanswered: has the way energy flows through reef ecosystems also changed? A new study led by scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and published in Nature reveals that it has, profoundly. Food chains on modern Caribbean reefs are 60-70% shorter than they were 7,000 years ago, and individual fish have lost the dietary specialisation that once sustained a complex web of energy pathways.