Abstract
To explain the southward propagating waves of crown-of-thorns outbreaks on the Great Barrier Reef, it has been proposed that the northern region acts as a seed area for these waves. In this paper we study whether the highly variable current pattern of this region facilitates the start of local outbreaks, making the northern region the seed area or pace-maker of travelling waves of outbreaks. To this end we construct an artificial reef system, which resembles the Great Barrier Reef by having a northern area with a random current pattern, and a central and southern region with a (southward) biased current pattern. Travelling waves running from north to south are observed in the system both with and without a deviant current pattern in the northern area. This demonstrates that travelling waves are an emergent property of the system. The result indicates that the observed waves of crown-of-thorns outbreaks on the Great Barrier Reef do not necessarily imply that there is a seed area in the north.
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van der Laan, J.D., Hogeweg, P. Waves of crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks —where do they come from?. Coral Reefs 11, 207–213 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00301995
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00301995