There's no place like home: crown-of-thorns outbreaks in the central pacific are regionally derived and independent events.

ABSTRACT: One of the most significant biological disturbances on a tropical coral reef is a population outbreak of the fecund, corallivorous crown-of-thorns sea star, Acanthaster planci. Although the factors that trigger an initial outbreak may vary, successive outbreaks within and across regions are assumed to spread via the planktonic larvae released from a primary outbreak. This secondary outbreak hypothesis is predominantly based on the high dispersal potential of A. planci and the assertion that outbreak populations (a rogue subset of the larger population) are genetically more similar to each other than they are to low-density non-outbreak populations. Here we use molecular techniques to evaluate the spatial scale at which A. planci outbreaks can propagate via larval dispersal in the central P

SUBMITTER: Timmers MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3281911 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature