The Crown of Thorns Starfish (CoTS) invoke horror and wonder. They also spur important science. Horror and wonder CoTS (Acanthaster) are indigenous to the Great Barrier Reef. They eat coral. In “normal” periods there are relatively few adult CoTS to be found and their presence does not threaten the Reef ecosystem. But every decade or so they […]
Larval cloning of the Crown of Thorns Starfish
Recently-published research shows larval Crown of Thorns Starfish (CoTS) clone themselves. A larval CoTS can split, resulting in TWO larval CoTS, each having the capacity to become a fully fertile adult. It takes less than a second. One moment there is a single larval CoTS, then suddenly there are two. See Allen at al (2019)* (PDF) […]
My visit to the Lizard Island Research Station
On the 11th of September my family and I arrived on Lizard Island. To get to the Island we flew on a tiny plane which could only fit 12 people on board. You could also see the captain flying it! The first lizard We arrived at Lizard Island on one side of the island. It […]
Stones tell ancient human story of Lizard Island
People visited and stayed on the island for thousands of years before Captain James Cook passed by in 1770 and called it ‘Lizard’. Dingaal Aboriginal traditional owners know it as Jiigurru (‘stingray’). They were there long before Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Chinese, Aztec, Inca and other ancient civilisations flourished. The Lizard Island Group (LIG) is comprised […]
Deep seagrass, blue carbon & climate change
Deep-water seagrass is sequestering carbon, mitigating climate change. Photosynthetic marine plants (especially seagrasses, tidal marshes and mangroves) “eat” carbon dioxide and release the oxygen component. Their residual biomass becomes part of the sea floor sediment, where their carbon remains for millennia. This sequestration occurs much more efficiently and lasts much longer than that of terrestrial […]
Reef recovery in 2018
In 2018 the corals spawned; juvenile corals that settled back after mass bleaching of 2016 and 2017 continued to grow; and many more appeared. Fish populations increased. The resident Lizard Island Research Station Directors Dr Anne Hoggett & Dr Lyle Vail were very pleased to see the spawning. Anne sent us this message on the […]
Coral goby social structures – pairs v groups
Research on coral goby species at Lizard Island shows the social structure of those that live as pairs is more resilient to habitat degradation caused by successive cyclones, as compared to those that live in groups of 3 or more. See Martin L Hing et al Repeated cyclone events reveal potential causes of sociality in coral-dwelling […]
Microplastics and other marine microdebris
Dr Frederieke Kroon and her colleagues from AIMS have published the first study confirming the presence of marine microdebris, including microplastics, in wild-caught fish on the Great Barrier Reef. They found microdebris items in the gastro-intestinal tracts of juvenile coral trout (Plectropomus leopardus and P. maculatus) caught on reefs around Lizard, Orpheus, Heron and […]
Reef soundscapes & larval fish
The health of a coral reef is measured by the life and diversity of the entire reef ecosystem, not just by the health and abundance of corals. When coral populations are significantly reduced, there is a reduction in populations of other reef animals. Many marine animals use sound to communicate and navigate. Fish whoop, croak, […]
CoTS eDNA
Field trials confirm that the presence and concentration of Crown of Thorns Starfish (CoTS) on any coral reef can be determined from environmental DNA (eDNA) extracted from a small sample of local seawater. This is a very promising advance. Until now the only way to obtain early indication of the next mass outbreak has been […]
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