Standard Presentation (15 mins) - Edits Required Australian Marine Sciences Association 2022

Deployment of semiochemical biocontrol agents to manage Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (CoTS) populations (#285)

Cherie A Motti 1 , Roxana Vasile 1 , Conan Wang 2 , Andrew Martini 3 , Scott Cummins 4 , Bernie Degnan 2 , Sandie Degnan 2 , David Craik 5 , Lone Hoj 1 , Owain Edwards 6 , Barbara Robson 1
  1. Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, QLD, Australia
  2. School of Biological Sciences, Centre for Marine Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  3. CSIRO, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
  4. University of the Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
  5. Institute for Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  6. CSIRO, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Asteroids rely on chemosensation of semiochemicals (chemical signals) throughout their life-history to modulate behaviours including foraging, spawning, settlement, metamorphosis, defence, dispersal and predator avoidance (Motti et al. 2018). Research has confirmed chemosensation is pivotal to many of these behaviours in CoTS, and semiochemicals have the potential to modify CoTS behaviour and regulate CoTS populations. Despite this knowledge, application of semiochemicals to reduce the occurrence of population outbreaks has to-date been unrealised (Høj et al. 2020). While the nature of these semiochemicals is under investigation, their implementation, which requires release strategies and devices have proven efficacy towards CoTS and are effective, environmentally safe, deployable at reef scale and economical, has not yet been considered. Addressing this is critical to the development of innovative control technologies to enhance the CoTS Integrated Pest Management program. Here, we apply the Relocatable Coastal Ocean Model to develop hydrodynamic models to understand the spatial and temporal footprint of semiochemical delivery around reefs. Using this information, existing delivery strategies and devices employed to control other pest species in the aquatic environment are reviewed and their applicability to semiochemical-based control of CoTS considered. Recommendations are offered to support the discovery of semiochemicals and design of new release technologies.

  1. Høj L, Byrne M, Kroon F, Westcott D (2020) A Review of Biologically Based Control Technologies for Crown-of-Thorns Starfish: Options for Enhancing the Integrated Pest Management Approach. Report to the National Environmental Science Program. Reef and Rainforest Research Centre Limited
  2. Motti CA, Bose U, Roberts RE, McDougall C, Smith MK, Hall MR, Cummins SF (2018) Chemical ecology of chemosensation in Asteroidea: Insights towards management strategies of pest species. Journal of Chemical Ecology 44:147-177