No abstract

Chronic outbreaks of the coral eating crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) have devastated coral communities throughout the Ryukyu Islands in the past four decades. Since A. planci has high fecundity and long larval duration, knowledge of reproductive timing and larval dispersal are keys to understanding mechanisms of successive recruitment and consequent outbreaks of adults. As the first step to acquiring this knowledge, we monitored water temperature and peak spawning periods using gonad observation. A total of 379 A. planci specimens were collected from

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract