The reef's best fertiliser falls from the sky — courtesy of seabirds

Here is a food chain to make you smile: seabirds nest on an island, eat fish from the sea, and — through the thoroughly unglamorous medium of their droppings — return rich nutrients to the shallows, where they feed the algae that feed the coral. Reporting for NPR from Palmyra Atoll in the remote Pacific, Lauren Sommer found some of the healthiest coral reefs on Earth thriving beside busy seabird colonies, and scientists drawing a straight line between the two. Protect the birds on land, it turns out, and the reef offshore flourishes — a restoration lesson written by guano, of all things.