期刊
MARINE ECOLOGY PROGRESS SERIES
卷 597, 期 -, 页码 179-190出版社
INTER-RESEARCH
DOI: 10.3354/meps12606
关键词
Acanthaster; Predation; Mortality; Recruitment; Thresholds; Larval settlement; Coral reefs
资金
- Crown of Thorns Starfish Research Committee of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville, Australia
Crown-of-thorns starfish Acanthaster planci are a significant predator of scleractinian corals, with outbreak populations continuing to impose large-scale mortality on coral reef communities. We measured mortality rates of small post-settlement juvenile A. planci in a caging experiment on the Great Barrier Reef. Starfish 3 mm in diameter suffered mortality rates of 2.6% d(-1), of which 73.0% was attributed to mobile predators. Starfish 13 mm in diameter had a lower rate of mortality of 0.82% d(-1). There were no differences in mortality rates between sites, and localised effects, such as the presence of specific predators like the shrimp Hymenocera sp., affected within-site variability in mortality rates. The coral rubble habitat where the experiments were conducted had a large suite of generalist putative predators including both fish and invertebrates. The results from this and previously published studies were used to develop a model of size-and age-dependent mortality, which, when applied with the commonly accepted destructive outbreak threshold for adult A. planci of 10 ha(-1) at age 2.5 yr, would require larval settlement rates of 5 m(-2). Parameterising the magnitude of likely settlement rates and rates of post-settlement mortality provides a significant advance in understanding and modelling the population dynamics of this important coral predator.
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