Feb 14, 2019 | COTS, Grants, Research
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...Dec 12, 2018 | Grants, Plastic pollution, Research
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... 
Dec 10, 2018 | COTS, eDNA, Grants, Research
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... 
Sep 12, 2018 | Biodiversity, eDNA, Grants, Research
Joseph DiBattista is a Research Fellow in the TrEnD Lab at Curtin University. Via a joint appointment, he is also Curator of the Ichthyology Collection at the Australian Museum (AM) and an AMRI researcher, based in Sydney. The AM’s Collection holds about 1.8 million... 
Dec 30, 2017 | COTS, Grants, Research
Professor Morgan Pratchett is a leading researcher on the Crown of Thorns Starfish (COTS). In our 2014 LIRRF donor update he outlined knowledge gaps relating to COTS. That year we received a $500,000 Commemorative Grant from The Ian Potter Foundation for research to...Feb 24, 2016 | COTS, Grants, Research
I have been researching mechanisms employed by Crown-Of-Thorns Starfish Acanthaster planci (COTS) during their early life stages to reduce their chances of being eaten by predators, and predation rates during these stages. COTS is one of the most destructive...