Biogeographical variation in diurnal behaviour of Acanthaster planci versus Acanthaster cf. solaris

Full description

This data set contains Crown of Thorns Starfish (Acanthaster planci and Acanthaster cf. solaris) behavioural data collected at Lankanfushi Island in the Maldives, and at Rib Reef on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. The data is deposited here to accompany the Open Access publication from the Related Publications link below. Here, we include information on all individual starfish counted during surveys at different times of day (including at night) at both locations. Information provided includes location, date, time and depth at which each individual was found, as well as the maximum diameter of each individual and the behaviour each individual was exhibiting. More specifically, whether the starfish was  hidden or exposed, if the individual was exhibiting resting, moving or feeding behaviour, and the prey items of those feeding is noted within this data set. Also included are point intercept coral cover data for each transect at each location as well as the R script used to analyse the data within the aforementioned publication.

The dataset consists of the following files:

• Burnetal.R and Burnetal.txt - R scripts used for analysis (open in R or R Studio) and plain text (.txt) formats
• COTSmovement.csv – All data collected for individual Crown of Thorns starfish at both locations. Includes diameter and behavioural information.
• COTS_PITRIB.csv - point intercept coral cover (Rib Reef)
• Maldives_PIT.csv - point intercept coral cover (Maldives)

The full methodology will be available in the Open Access publication from the Related Publications link below.