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Science 25 August 1989:
Vol. 245. no. 4920, pp. 847 - 850
DOI: 10.1126/science.245.4920.847
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Articles

Evidence from Sediments of Long-Term Acanthaster planci Predation on Corals of the Great Barrier Reef

PETER D. WALBRAN 1, ROBERT A. HENDERSON 1, A. J. TIMOTHY JULL 2, and M. JOHN HEAD 3

1 Geology Department, James Cook University of North Queensland, Townsville, Queensland, 4811, Australia.
2 NSF Accelerator Facility for Radioisotope Analysis, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721.
3 Radiocarbon Dating Research Laboratory, Australian National University, G.P.O. Box 4, Canberra, A.C.T., 2601, Australia.

Since 1962 the crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci, has caused the devastation of living coral in large tracts of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Some authorities view this as a modern phenomenon, resulting from ecological disturbance caused by man. Evidence from skeletal remains in sediment suggests that large A. planci populations have been part of the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem for at least 8000 years. Coral predation by A. planci is likely to have influenced the morphological fabric of the Great Barrier Reef in its post-glacial development and may also have influenced species richness of the reef biota.

Submitted on April 25, 1989
Accepted on July 18, 1989


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Sediment mixing and stratigraphic disorder revealed by the age-structure of Tellina shells in Great Barrier Reef sediment.
M. A. Kosnik, Q. Hua, G. E. Jacobsen, D. S. Kaufman, and R. A. Wust (2007)
Geology 35, 811-814
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
El Nino-Southern Oscillation mass mortalities of reef corals: a model of high temperature marine extinctions?.
P. W. Glynn (2000)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 178, 117-133
   Abstract »    PDF »


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