Modeling population growth of COTS in Australia's Great Barrier Reef

Crown of thorns starfish project

Kevin Shoemaker

Crown-of-Thorns Starfish project

Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (C.O.T.S.; Acanthaster planci) is a native predator of coral. On occasion, C.O.T.S. populations “explode”, and these outbreaks represent one of the major recognized threats to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia (accounting for 42% of coral loss over the past 30 years). The A.P.E. lab is collaborating with researchers at Australian Institute of Marine Science in Queensland (Sam Matthews and Camille Mellin), James Cook University (Morgan Pratchett) and University of Adelaide (Damien Fordham) to better understand the drivers of C.O.T.S. population explosions and potentially develop strategies for how to reduce this threat to the Great Barrier Reef.

One manuscript is currently in review:

Matthews, S., Mellin, C., Pratchett, M. Shoemaker, K.T. Submitted. COTSMod: A spatially explicit metacommunity model for the management of Crown-of-thorns starfish and coral recovery. Advances in Marine Biology.

Map of the Great Barrier Reef

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