University of Queensland scientists look for a solution to the crown-of-thorns starfish plaguing the Great Barrier Reef by seeking out a natural predator to the rampant invertebrate.
In their first stage of life, the starfish measure less than a millimetre across, and by the time they reach their first year, the creatures are the size of your fingernail.The starfish's voracious hunger for coral has seen its presence extend from the northern Great Barrier Reef down to the Capricorn Cays, off the central Queensland coast, over the past decade.
Kenny Wolfe says being able to identify the starfish's predators will be a great thing for citizen science groups to keep an eye on the reef. "That might link to the reefs that do or don't have outbreaks already of the starfish, and if we can start just understanding these species on the reef, that can filter more through to management in the future," Dr Wolfe said.
"Corals that produce babies, which are dispersed on the water columns, are the ones that go and reseed the surrounding reefs and actually replenish the coral populations," he said."We've changed this ecosystem," Dr Williamson said.
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