Nooks, crannies and critters

Nooks, crannies and critters

Drawing on field work conducted at the Lizard Island Research Station, a large team of ecologists and engineers has developed a relatively simple way to standardize how habitat complexity is measured. The research, recently published in Nature, Ecology and Evolution,...
Finding baby Crown-of-Thorns Starfish

Finding baby Crown-of-Thorns Starfish

Newly settled crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster cf. solaris, aka CoTS) have rarely been studied in the field. This knowledge gap in our understanding of CoTS population and outbreak dynamics has been my research focus for the past several years. My interest...
Early detection of Crown-of-Thorns Starfish outbreaks

Early detection of Crown-of-Thorns Starfish outbreaks

Early detection of population outbreaks in Crown of Thorns Starfish (Acanthaster solaris cf, aka CoTS) is a necessary precursor to containment. Excellent progress has been made over the past few years, especially in the deployment of DNA technology.  The five research...