Protection of coral reef fish delivers ecosystem-critical biocontrol of coral-eating starfish across the Great Barrier Reef.

ABSTRACT: While biological control (or biocontrol) is an established method for managing pest species in terrestrial systems, few successful applications have been reported for marine environments. Crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS, Acanthaster ssp.) are regarded as a pest species across the Indo-Pacific, where they are voracious predators of corals and represent one of the largest causes of coral mortality on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The role of reef fish in moderating outbreaks of CoTS through biocontrol has recently become more widely recognized. Here we have incorporated reef fish into a meta-community model of the GBR to demonstrate the critical role that marine reserves and other fisheries regulations have had in limiting the prevalence of CoTS outbreaks and maintaining the resilience of the

SUBMITTER: Condie SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12789020 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature