Crown-of-thorns starfish impede the recovery potential of coral reefs following bleaching

Haywood, Michael D. E.; Thomson, Damian P.; Babcock, Russell C.; Pillans, Richard D.; Keesing, John K.; Miller, Margaret; Rochester, Wayne; Donovan, Anthea; Evans, Richard D.; Shedrawi, George; Field, Stuart N.

doi:10.1007/s00227-019-3543-z

Cited by 20 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Guest et al 2012) of reefs at the Montebello and Barrow islands in 2013, because there was a substantial reduction in coral cover following thermal anomalies in 2013. Recovery of coral in this region is likely to have been further impeded by aggregations of the crown-of-thorns starfish at both the Montebello Island and Barrow Island in 2014 and 2015, which may have started as early as 2006 (Haywood et al 2019).…”

Section: Role Of Bleaching and Other Factors In Regional Trends In Comentioning

confidence: 99%

Recurrent coral bleaching in north-western Australia and associated declines in coral cover

Babcock

Thomson

Haywood

et al. 2021

Mar. Freshwater Res.

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Coral reefs have been heavily affected by elevated sea-surface temperature (SST) and coral bleaching since the late 1980s; however, until recently coastal reefs of northwestern Australia have been relatively unaffected compared to Timor Sea and eastern Australian reefs. We compare SST time series with changes in coral cover spanning a period of up to 36 years to describe temporal and spatial variability in bleaching and associated coral mortality throughout the Pilbara-Ningaloo region. Declines in coral cover ranged from 12.5 to 51.3%, with relative declines ranging from 38 to 92%. Since 2013, coral cover throughout the region has declined to historically low levels at four of five subregions, with impaired recovery occurring at two subregions. Observations are consistent with global trends of repeated severe heat waves, coral bleaching and acute declines in coral cover. Locations within this study region have already experienced multiple coralbleaching events within a period of less than 5 years. There is a high likelihood that reefs in the western Pilbara and northern Ningaloo regions will experience more frequent marine heatwaves, coral bleaching and mortality events in the future. Action, therefore, needs to be taken now to support the resilience of coral reef ecosystems in the region, which is arguably the most important coral-reef province on Australia's western coast.

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Section: Role Of Bleaching and Other Factors In Regional Trends In Comentioning

confidence: 99%

Recurrent coral bleaching in north-western Australia and associated declines in coral cover

Babcock

Thomson

Haywood

et al. 2021

Mar. Freshwater Res.

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“…This could lead to accelerated local extirpation of preferred coral prey and may also promote aggregation of starfish in distinct areas with high abundance of preferred prey corals. Haywood et al [54] suggested that localized aggregations of A. planci on reefs in northwest Australia resulted from moderate coral bleaching in 2010/11 and 2012/13, which greatly reduced the broad scale abundance of live corals. As such, aggregations of crown-of-thorns starfish formed and persisted in restricted areas of high coral cover, especially where there was an abundance of preferred prey.…”

Section: (B) Homing Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Homing behaviour by destructive crown-of-thorns starfish is triggered by local availability of coral prey

et al. 2020

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Corallivorous crown-of-thorns starfishes ( Acanthaster spp.) can decimate coral assemblages on Indo-Pacific coral reefs during population outbreaks. While initial drivers of population irruptions leading to outbreaks remain largely unknown, subsequent dispersal of outbreaks appears coincident with depletion of coral prey. Here, we used in situ time-lapse photography to characterize movement of the Pacific crown-of-thorns starfish ( Acanthaster cf. solaris ) in the northern and southern Great Barrier Reef in 2015, during the fourth recorded population outbreak of the starfish, but prior to widespread coral bleaching. Daily tracking of 58 individuals over a total of 1117 h revealed all starfish to move a minimum of 0.52 m, with around half of all tracked starfish showing negligible daily displacement (less than 1 m day −1 ), ranging up to a maximum of 19 m day −1 . Movement was primarily nocturnal and daily displacement varied spatially with variation in local availability of Acropora spp., which is the preferred coral prey. Two distinct behavioural modes emerged: (i) homing movement, whereby tracked paths (as tested against a random-walk-model) involved short displacement distances following distinct ‘outward' movement to Acropora prey (typically displaying ‘feeding scars') and ‘homebound' movement to nearby shelter; versus (ii) roaming movement, whereby individuals showed directional movement beyond initial tracking positions without return. Logistic modelling revealed more than half of all tracked starfish demonstrated homing when local abundance (percentage cover) of preferred Acropora coral prey was greater than 33%. Our results reveal facultative homing by Acanthaster with the prey-dependent behavioural switch to roaming forays providing a mechanism explaining localized aggregations and diffusion of these population irruptions as prey is locally depleted.

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“…A CoTs outbreak also occurred in the 1970s [ 26 , 36 ], and other unreported events may have occurred in the intervening years [ 28 ]. Outbreaks of CoTs can cause widespread damage and coral loss on reefs [ 37 ], particularly after coral bleaching, when predation may target the thermally-tolerant surviving corals such as massive Porites [ 38 , 39 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coral reefs in the Gilbert Islands of Kiribati: Resistance, resilience, and recovery after more than a decade of multiple stressors

et al. 2021

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Coral reefs are increasingly affected by a combination of acute and chronic disturbances from climate change and local stressors. The coral reefs of the Republic of Kiribati’s Gilbert Islands are exposed to frequent heat stress caused by central-Pacific type El Niño events, and may provide a glimpse into the future of coral reefs in other parts of the world, where the frequency of heat stress events will likely increase due to climate change. Reefs in the Gilbert Islands experienced a series of acute disturbances over the past fifteen years, including mass coral bleaching in 2004–2005 and 2009–2010, and an outbreak of the corallivorous sea star Acanthaster cf solaris, or Crown-of-Thorns (CoTs), in 2014. The local chronic pressures including nutrient loading, sedimentation and fishing vary within the island chain, with highest pressures on the reefs in urbanized South Tarawa Atoll. In this study, we examine how recovery from acute disturbances differs across a gradient of human influence in neighboring Tarawa and Abaiang Atolls from 2012 through 2018. Benthic cover and size frequency data suggests that local coral communities have adjusted to the heat stress via shifts in the community composition to more temperature-tolerant taxa and individuals. In densely populated South Tarawa, we document a phase shift to the weedy and less bleaching-sensitive coral Porites rus, which accounted for 81% of all coral cover by 2018. By contrast, in less populated Abaiang, coral communities remained comparatively more diverse (with higher percentages of Pocillopora and the octocoral Heliopora) after the disturbances, but reefs had lower overall hard coral cover (18%) and were dominated by turf algae (41%). The CoTs outbreak caused a decline in the cover and mean size of massive Porites, the only taxa that was a ‘winner’ of the coral bleaching events in Abaiang. Although there are signs of recovery, the long-term trajectory of the benthic communities in Abaiang is not yet clear. We suggest three scenarios: they may remain in their current state (dominated by turf algae), undergo a phase shift to dominance by the macroalgae Halimeda, or recover to dominance by thermally tolerant hard coral genera. These findings provide a rare glimpse at the future of coral reefs around the world and the ways they may be affected by climate change, which may allow scientists to better predict how other reefs will respond to increasing heat stress events across gradients of local human disturbance.

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Crown-of-thorns starfish impede the recovery potential of coral reefs following bleaching

Cited by 20 publications

References 70 publications

Recurrent coral bleaching in north-western Australia and associated declines in coral cover

Recurrent coral bleaching in north-western Australia and associated declines in coral cover

Homing behaviour by destructive crown-of-thorns starfish is triggered by local availability of coral prey

Coral reefs in the Gilbert Islands of Kiribati: Resistance, resilience, and recovery after more than a decade of multiple stressors

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