Crown-of-thorns starfish

Microtubule-regulating kinesins

How do they reproduce? Unlike many other starfish, the general body surface of crown-of-thorns starfish is soft and flexible, which enables it to swell as it develops huge gonads. Fecundity is obviously related to size, but, as an example, a 40 cm diameter crown-of-thorns starfish may commit about 45% of its total body energy to reproduction and shed an astonishing 50 million eggs. Like many ma...

Benthic Predators Influence Microhabitat Preferences and Settlement Success of Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (Acanthaster cf. solaris)

Like most coral reef organisms, crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster spp.) are expected to be highly vulnerable to predation as they transition from a planktonic larval phase to settling among reef habitats. Accordingly, crown-of-thorns starfish might be expected to exhibit behavioural adaptations which moderate exposure to predation at this critical stage in their life history. Using pairwise...

Feeding Preferences of the Cushion Star Culcita Novaeguineae in the Presence of the Crown of Thorns Starfish Acanthaster Planci

Crown of thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci Linné 1758) are notorious coral reef devastators; they decimate coral populations, thus changing the coral reef habitat and killing many organisms that depend on the coral. Culcita novaeguineae (Muller and Troschel 1842), or cushion stars, are corallivores and generalists that live in Pacific reefs. Because C. novaeguineae and A. planci have similar ...

Strategies for Surveillance and Control Using Crown-of-Thorns Starfish management program data to optimally distribute management resources between surveillance and control

Microsatellites Reveal Genetic Homogeneity among Outbreak Populations of Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (Acanthaster cf. solaris) on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

Specific patterns in the initiation and spread of reef-wide outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish are important, both to understand potential causes (or triggers) of outbreaks and to develop more effective and highly targeted management and containment responses. Using analyses of genetic diversity and structure (based on 17 microsatellite loci), this study attempted to resolve the specific ori...