Crown-of-thorns starfish promote additional fine-grained habitat fragmentation in a coral reef ecosystem
Cumming, Graeme S., Bostrom Einarsson, Lisa Boström, and Jones, Geoffrey P. (2025) Crown-of-thorns starfish promote additional fine-grained habitat fragmentation in a coral reef ecosystem. Landscape Ecology, 40 (5). 95.
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Abstract
Context: Species that provide habitat for other organisms are critical for land- and seascape structure. Since coral patch interiors offer different habitats and perform a functionally different role from edges, loss and fragmentation of corals can negatively impact biodiversity. Although processes leading to coral loss have been well documented, their impacts on habitat configuration (arrangement) are poorly documented and understood. Objectives: We asked (1) whether Crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS) forage preferentially on coral edges; and (2) whether they promote fragmentation by increasing the amount of edge habitat more than might be expected relative to random coral loss. Methods: We used two different years (2012 and 2014, pre- and post-CoTS irruption) of classified photographic imagery from 10 × 10 m transects across 17 different coral reefs in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea. Results: Comparisons to standard neutral models at a grain of 15 cm showed that CoTS do not forage preferentially within or on the edges of coral patches. The fine-grained structure of coral patches in the seascape was substantially more fragmented post-CoTS, particularly at intermediate levels of coral cover. Coral cover declined by a relatively high mean of nearly 5% across all sites, with considerable variance in benthic habitat change between reefs. Conclusions: CoTS are not preferential edge foragers at this scale of analysis. More broadly, our analysis shows how methods developed in terrestrial systems can offer insights into changes in seascape structure and provides useful detail for further research on the ecological impacts of CoTS on benthic fauna.
| Item ID: | 88093 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1572-9761 |
| Keywords: | Edge, Habitat configuration, Invertebrate, Landscape, Patch, Predation, Seascape |
| Copyright Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Mar 2026 05:56 |
| FoR Codes: | 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310305 Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) @ 100% |
| SEO Codes: | 18 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT > 1805 Marine systems and management > 180504 Marine biodiversity @ 100% |
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