Daily Variation in the Feeding Activity of Pacific Crown-of-Thorns Starfish ( cf. ).

The ecological impact of crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS; spp.) on coral reefs is intrinsically linked to their feeding behaviour. Management thresholds designed to mitigate coral loss driven by elevated densities of crown-of-thorns starfish rely on accurate estimates of individual feeding rates.

The lab-field continuum in conservation physiology research: leveraging multiple approaches to inform policy and practice.

In the field of conservation physiology, there is often a trade off between conducting research in controlled laboratory settings or in inherently variable field environments. However, this belief sets up a false dichotomy where laboratory experiments are perceived as providing precise, mechanistic understanding with low variability at the cost of environmental realism while field studies are ecologically relevant but criticized for generating inconsistent evidence that is difficult to interpret and replicate. Despite the perceived binary view, these approaches are not in opposition to one another, but rather form a continuum along increasing ecological complexity.

Limited Evidence for Depth Specialism in Isolated Seamount Reef Predators.

Gradients in light, temperature and hydrodynamics associated with water depth are important determinants of ecological communities in marine environments. While depth specialism in coral reef fishes has been extensively studied in shallow (< 30 m) coastal reef systems, less is known about how depth-associated drivers operate over the larger depth ranges on isolated pinnacle and seamount reef systems, which are known to support abundant assemblages of predatory fishes. Using remotely operated vehicles, we surveyed predatory fish assemblages across a 100 m depth gradient on three seamount reefs in the Coral Sea.

Morphological Composition Influences Redundancy, Complementarity and Ecological Relevance of Habitat Complexity Metrics in Simulated Coral Communities.

Earth's most complex and biodiverse ecosystems are characterised by high habitat complexity. On coral reefs, habitat complexity is influenced by the diverse morphology and composition of hard corals, shaping reef structure and shelter provision for many species. Various metrics are used to quantify reef complexity, yet, it remains unclear how well these metrics capture ecological functions such as shelter provision.

In vivo induction of crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster spp.) spawning using a synthetic relaxin-like gonad-stimulating peptide.

The corallivorous Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (COTS; Acanthaster cf. solaris) has become a major pest across the Indo-Pacific, primarily due to anthropogenic environmental factors that have increased populations beyond sustainable levels. These effects are costly to both the economy and ecology of coral reefs and require human intervention.

Priority setting for chemicals, waste and pollution: a risk-based strategy for environmental and human health protection.

Chemicals provide numerous benefits that support and improve the health and welfare of humans and the environment in a wide range of applications. The environmental release of chemicals, however, can result in risks to humans and the environment. Minimizing and eliminating chemical pollution should thus represent an important goal for all stakeholders and rights holders.

Trophic transfer of polyester microfibres across a multi-level marine food web.

Microplastics are multifarious contaminants and their transfer by marine organisms can impact health. Yet, despite considerable research, microplastic quantification across multiple trophic levels is incomplete. Here, ingestion, retention, depuration and transfer of environmentally relevant polyester (PEST) microplastics, with plasticising bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) as a co-contaminant, is reported for three reef species.

Tracing Blue Carbon Flows Across Diverse Seascapes.

Plants occupying coastal ecosystems draw in carbon dioxide (CO) from the air and water around them during photosynthesis. A fraction of this CO becomes fixed into plant biomass and can eventually contribute to the blue carbon pool-organic carbon (C) sequestered in slow-turnover sinks. An important step in protecting and enhancing this natural carbon sequestration pathway is determining the relative contributions of different coastal plants to this blue carbon pool in durable sinks.

Assessing the soundscapes of the critically endangered grey nurse shark (Carcharias taurus) in rocky reef habitats.

Soundscapes are vital components of marine ecosystems, yet increasing anthropogenic noise is altering natural acoustic environments. This study explores the relationship between soundscape characteristics and hotspots of abundance for the Critically Endangered grey nurse shark (Carcharias taurus). Using SoundTrap hydrophones (ST600 and ST300), acoustic data was recorded at three aggregation and three non-aggregation sites off Port Stephens, Southeast Australia, between May and July 2023 to accumulate a total of over 1000 h of sound for the entire study.

An integrated, tiered microplastic workflow, supporting rapid broadscale detection options.

With growing concerns regarding microplastic pollution, there is an urgent need to improve understanding of their presence, distribution, and environmental impacts. This necessitates more coordinated and harmonised large-scale microplastic monitoring initiatives. However, such assessments are traditionally expensive, labour-intensive, and hindered by a lack of standardised sampling and analytical protocols, which impede rapid, yet accurate identification of microplastic sources and ecological risks.

Mathematical Modelling and Uncertainty Quantification for Analysis of Biphasic Coral Reef Recovery Patterns.

Coral reefs are increasingly subjected to major disturbances threatening the health of marine ecosystems. Substantial research is underway to develop intervention strategies that assist reefs in recovery from, and resistance to, inevitable future climate and weather extremes. To assess potential benefits of interventions, mechanistic understanding of coral reef recovery and resistance patterns is essential.

Coral thermotolerance retained following year-long exposure to a novel environment.

Active restoration strategies targeting corals with elevated heat tolerance have the potential to enhance reef resistance under a warming climate. While stress-tolerant corals have been documented in extreme systems such as mangrove lagoons, it is critical to assess the ability of these corals to maintain tolerance when moved to a more benign habitat. Here, we translocated corals from a mangrove lagoon to an adjacent reef and evaluated the thermal thresholds of corals from both locations before translocation and after 1 year.

Methylome Profiling of a Deuterostome Invertebrate Using Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT).

DNA methylation is crucial for genome regulation and provides key insights into the interaction between genetics and environmental factors, offering valuable perspectives for ecological research. However, knowledge of DNA methylation patterns in nonmodel invertebrates remains limited. The present study addresses this knowledge gap by conducting the first methylome profiling of the Pacific crown-of-thorns seastar (CoTS; Acanthaster cf.

No toxicity to the tropical marine microalgae Tisochrysis lutea from gamma radiation.

Environmental risk assessments for contaminants require toxicological data to evaluate the potential effect on organisms and ecosystems of interest. As human activities in marine environments continue to intensify, so does the presence of contaminants such as Naturally Occurring Radionuclides and Radioactive Materials (NOR and NORM, respectively), and the risk of NORM contamination has risen globally through resource extraction. The FASSET radiation effects database (FRED) has compiled radiation toxicity data to collate the existing ionising radiation effect data for non-human species, leading to environmental thresholds such as the 10 μGy/h international screening level to protect 95 % of organisms in all ecosystems.

Governing novel climate interventions in rapidly changing oceans.

Marine systems are rapidly changing in response to global heating. The scale and intensity of change are triggering a host of novel interventions to sustain oceans and ocean-dependent societies. However, the pace of new interventions is outstripping capacity to prevent unintended consequences because governance systems to ensure responsible transformation of marine systems are not yet in place.

Protective multi-stressor interactions in the Anthropocene: Key considerations for investigating cross-tolerance in a conservation context.

In the Anthropocene, species are increasingly faced with multiple stressors that are more severe and less predictable than before. While multiple stressors often interact to affect organisms negatively, sometimes these interactions can be beneficial, enhancing resilience through cross-protection. Cross-protection interactions occur when exposure to one stressor, such as elevated temperature, enhances an organism's tolerance to a different stressor, like hypoxia, through shared protective mechanisms or signaling pathways.

Horizontal transmission of heat-evolved microalgal symbionts in adult corals.

Traditional coral reef restoration methods often fail to consider rising sea-surface temperatures driven by climate change. The introduction of experimentally heat-evolved algal symbionts into corals offers a promising solution by enhancing coral holobiont thermotolerance in a relatively short timeframe. However, the scalability of this approach remains a key challenge.

Bacterial Dynamics in Newly Settled Acropora kenti: Insights From Inoculations With Individual Probiotic Candidates.

Bacterial probiotics hold promise for enhancing coral health and stress resilience; however, their application to coral juveniles, which are critical for restorative aquaculture, remains underexplored. Here, we show that the microbiome of newly settled Acropora kenti is amenable to manipulation, with individual probiotic candidates inducing distinct microbiome responses that differed in their stability after the final inoculation. Three of the eight tested strains, Halomonas smyrnensis, Endozoicomonas acroporae and Roseivivax lentus, remained prevalent in the microbiome at least 5 days post-inoculation.

Managing the fuzzy boundaries and partitions of marine ecological systems using network theory.

Management and monitoring of populations in complex habitat mosaics is challenging, requiring effective zonation and bio regionalization strategies. In recent years, marine systems have been partitioned in multiple ways, such as marine protected zones and fishery stocks to enhance conservation and resource management. Viewing these systems as complex ecological networks of connected areas, habitat patches, or sub-populations (nodes) connected by the movement of organisms (edges) helps improve management.

Competitive cleaning: behavioural variation supports coexistence of two juvenile sympatric cleanerfishes.

Cleanerfish support coral reef ecosystems by providing important services to client fishes. Cleanerfish species often coexist, but how interspecies dynamics influence cleaning networks across life-history stages remains largely unknown. Here, we investigated the effects of interspecific competition on the behaviour of two juvenile cleaner wrasses, and .

Fouling release coatings reduce colonisation of coral seeding devices.

The increasing frequency and severity of coral bleaching underscores the need for effective coral reef restoration programs. These initiatives include deploying coral fragments or early recruits (spat), with large-scale coral seeding success dependent on improving coral survival by minimizing competition from algae and benthic invertebrates. This study presents a proof-of-concept field experiment assessing the effectiveness of two commercial non-biocidal fouling release coatings (FRCs) and an FRC wax coating in reducing fouling on coral seeding devices.

Connectivity differs by orders of magnitude among co-distributed corals, affecting spatial scales of eco-evolutionary processes.

Reef building corals are declining worldwide, yet the processes driving population connectivity remain poorly understood. Using complementary analyses, we provide quantitative estimates of ecologically relevant dispersal and evolutionarily important gene flow in co-distributed coral species on the Great Barrier Reef. We find dispersal distances across meters (23 to 102 meters) in the brooding and across kilometers (21 to 52 kilometers) in the broadcast spawning , consistent with expectations based on their reproductive modes.

Development of a quantitative PMA-16S rRNA gene sequencing workflow for absolute abundance measurements of seawater microbial communities.

Background: Ecological risk assessments rarely consider the impacts of environmental stress on microbial communities. Incorporating microbial community responses into these evaluations requires establishing sensitivity thresholds based on the absolute abundance of viable taxa. While essential for describing microbial community dynamics, sequencing-based analyses are typically limited to relative proportions and fail to reveal the magnitude or directionality of abundance shifts.

Prickly Defenders: A Review of Venomous Sea Urchins (Echinoidea).

Sea urchins, Echinoidea, are widely known for their defensive spines and pedicellariae, with some species having co-evolved venom in conjunction with those appendages. Despite this, their venomous arsenal remains poorly understood. Research has predominately focused on pedicellariae venom, while the spines have been largely neglected within studies.

Drivers of genetic diversity across the marine tree of life.

Why do some species have more genetic diversity than others? This question is one of the greatest remaining mysteries in evolutionary biology, and is particularly urgent in marine species, which are experiencing catastrophic anthropogenic impacts. We address this critical gap by estimating genetic diversity for 93 marine species sampled over 9,000 localities. For each species, we aggregate biotic traits and abiotic geographic data for their ranges.