Juvenile waiting stage crown-of-thorns sea stars are resilient in heatwave conditions that bleach and kill corals.

The juveniles of predatory sea stars can remain in their recruitment-nursery habitat for some time before their ontogenetic shift to the adult habitat and diet. These small juveniles are vulnerable to a range of factors with their sensitivity amplified by climate change-driven ocean warming. We investigate the thermal tolerance of the waiting stage herbivorous juveniles of the keystone coral predator, the crown-of-thorns sea star (COTS, Acanthaster sp.

Biochemical metabolomic profiling of the Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (Acanthaster): New insight into its biology for improved pest management.

The Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (COTS), Acanthaster species, is a voracious coral predator that destroys coral reefs when in outbreak status. The baseline metabolite and lipid biomolecules of 10 COTS tissues, including eggs from gravid females, were investigated in this study to provide insight into their biology and identify avenues for control. Targeted and untargeted metabolite- and lipidomics-based mass spectrometry approaches were used to obtain tissue-specific metabolite and lipid profiles.

Crown of thorns starfish life-history traits contribute to outbreaks, a continuing concern for coral reefs.

Crown of thorns starfish (COTS, Acanthaster sp.) are notorious for their destructive consumption of coral that decimates tropical reefs, an attribute unique among tropical marine invertebrates. Their populations can rapidly increase from 0-1 COTS ha-1 to more than 10-1000 COTS ha-1 in short order causing a drastic change to benthic communities and reducing the functional and species diversity of coral reef ecosystems.

Knowledge Gaps in the Biology, Ecology, and Management of the Pacific Crown-of-Thorns Sea Star sp. on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

AbstractCrown-of-thorns sea stars ( sp.) are among the most studied coral reef organisms, owing to their propensity to undergo major population irruptions, which contribute to significant coral loss and reef degradation throughout the Indo-Pacific. However, there are still important knowledge gaps pertaining to the biology, ecology, and management of sp.

The Waiting Stage, Prolonged Residency in Nursery Habitats by Juveniles of the Predatory Sea Star .

AbstractGrowth and recruitment of the sea star was followed over six years in Lough Hyne, southwest Ireland. Juveniles from a 2-mm radius were found on algae at <1-2-m depth following what appeared to be gregarious larval settlement. Data from Lough Hyne and Mulroy Bay (northwest Ireland) indicated that algal habitat serves as a nursery area for juveniles of .

Echidnas of the Sea: The Defensive Behavior of Juvenile and Adult Crown-of-Thorns Sea Stars.

AbstractCrown-of-thorns sea stars are one of the most ecologically important tropical marine invertebrates, with boom-bust population dynamics that influence the community structure of coral reefs. Although predation is likely to influence the development of population outbreaks, little is known about the defensive behavior of crown-of-thorns sea stars. Righting behavior after being overturned, a key defensive response in echinoderms, was investigated for the newly settled herbivorous juvenile, the corallivorous juvenile, and adult stages of crown-of-thorns sea stars.

Microbiome reduction and endosymbiont gain from a switch in sea urchin life history.

Animal gastrointestinal tracts harbor a microbiome that is integral to host function, yet species from diverse phyla have evolved a reduced digestive system or lost it completely. Whether such changes are associated with alterations in the diversity and/or abundance of the microbiome remains an untested hypothesis in evolutionary symbiosis. Here, using the life history transition from planktotrophy (feeding) to lecithotrophy (nonfeeding) in the sea urchin , we demonstrate that the lack of a functional gut corresponds with a reduction in microbial community diversity and abundance as well as the association with a diet-specific microbiome.

Ocean acidification induces distinct transcriptomic responses across life history stages of the sea urchin Heliocidaris erythrogramma.

Ocean acidification (OA) from seawater uptake of rising carbon dioxide emissions impairs development in marine invertebrates, particularly in calcifying species. Plasticity in gene expression is thought to mediate many of these physiological effects, but how these responses change across life history stages remains unclear. The abbreviated lecithotrophic development of the sea urchin Heliocidaris erythrogramma provides a valuable opportunity to analyse gene expression responses across a wide range of life history stages, including the benthic, post-metamorphic juvenile.

Diet flexibility and growth of the early herbivorous juvenile crown-of-thorns sea star, implications for its boom-bust population dynamics.

The ecology of the early herbivorous juvenile stage of the crown-of-thorns sea star (COTS, Acanthaster spp.) is poorly understood, yet the success of this life stage is key to generating population outbreaks that devastate coral reefs. Crustose coralline algae (CCA) has been considered to be the main diet of herbivorous juveniles.

The hidden army: corallivorous crown-of-thorns seastars can spend years as herbivorous juveniles.

Crown-of-thorns seastar (COTS) outbreaks are a major threat to coral reefs. Although the herbivorous juveniles and their switch to corallivory are key to seeding outbreaks, they remain a black box in our understanding of COTS. We investigated the impact of a delay in diet transition due to coral scarcity in cohorts reared on crustose coralline algae for 10 months and 6.