The decline of large predators and other “apex consumers” at the top of the food chain has disrupted ecosystems all over the planet, according to a review of recent findings conducted by an international team of scientists and published in the July 15 issue of Science.

All of these ecological questions are fine and dandy but how do I begin to investigate them? The answer is through MODELING…Ecological modeling is a practical tool that facilitates investigations of complex systems like coral reefs because it allows the simultaneously exploration of a suite of interactions and how they change in a simulated reef system.