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Climate change as an unexpected co-factor promoting coral eating seastar (Acanthaster planci) outbreaks

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posted on 2015-01-01, 00:00 authored by S Uthicke, M Logan, M Liddy, David FrancisDavid Francis, N Hardy, M Lamare
Coral reefs face a crisis due to local and global anthropogenic stressors. A large proportion of the ~50% coral loss on the Great Barrier Reef has been attributed to outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns-seastar (COTS). A widely assumed cause of primary COTS outbreaks is increased larval survivorship due to higher food availability, linked with anthropogenic runoff . Our experiment using a range of algal food concentrations at three temperatures representing present day average and predicted future increases, demonstrated a strong influence of food concentration on development is modulated by temperature. A 2°C increase in temperature led to a 4.2–4.9 times (at Day 10) or 1.2–1.8 times (Day 17) increase in late development larvae. A model indicated that food was the main driver, but that temperature was an important modulator of development. For instance, at 5000 cells ml−1 food, a 2°C increase may shorten developmental time by 30% and may increase the probability of survival by 240%. The main contribution of temperature is to ‘push’ well-fed larvae faster to settlement. We conclude that warmer sea temperature is an important co-factor promoting COTS outbreaks.

History

Journal

Scientific reports

Volume

5

Season

Article Number : 8402

Article number

8402

Pagination

1-8

Location

London, Eng.

Open access

  • Yes

eISSN

2045-2322

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article, C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2015, Nature Publishing Group

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

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