Integrated pest management (IPM) leverages our understanding of ecological interactions to mitigate the impact of pest species on economically and/or ecologically important assets. It has primarily been applied in terrestrial settings (e.g., agriculture), but has rarely been attempted for marine ecosystems. The crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS), Acanthaster spp., is a voracious coral predator throughout the Indo-Pacific where it undergoes large population increases (irruptions), termed outbreaks. During outbreaks CoTS act as a pest species and can result in substantial coral loss. Contemporary management of CoTS on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) adopts facets of the IPM paradigm to manage these outbreaks through strategic use of direct manual control (culling) of individuals in response to ecologically based target thresholds. There has, however, been limited quantitative analysis of how to optimize the implementation of such thresholds. Here we use a multispecies modeling approach to assess the performance of alternative CoTS management scenarios for improving coral cover trajectories. The scenarios examined varied in terms of their ecological threshold target, the sensitivity of the threshold, and the level of management resourcing. Our approach illustrates how to quantify multidimensional trade-offs in resourcing constraints, concurrent CoTS and coral population dynamics, the stringency of target thresholds, and the geographical scale of management outcomes (number of sites). We found strategies with low target density thresholds for CoTS (≤0.03 CoTS min⁻¹) could act as “Effort Sinks” and limit the number of sites that could be effectively controlled, particularly under CoTS population outbreaks. This was because a handful of sites took longer to control, which meant other sites were not controlled. Higher density thresholds (e.g., 0.04–0.08 CoTS min⁻¹), tuned to levels of coral cover, diluted resources among sites but were more robust to resourcing constraints and pest population dynamics. Our study highlights trade-off decisions when using an IPM framework and informs the implementation of threshold-based strategies on the GBR.

中文翻译：

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使用综合害虫管理框架改善珊瑚覆盖

害虫综合管理 (IPM) 利用我们对生态相互作用的理解来减轻害虫物种对经济和/或生态重要资产的影响。它主要应用于陆地环境（例如农业），但很少尝试用于海洋生态系统。棘冠海星 (CoTS)，棘星属 ( Acanthaster spp.)，是一种贪婪的珊瑚捕食者，分布于整个印度-太平洋地区，其种群数量大幅增加（干扰），称为爆发。在爆发期间，CoTS 作为一种害虫物种，可能导致珊瑚大量损失。大堡礁 (GBR) 的 CoTS 当代管理采用 IPM 范式的各个方面，通过战略性地使用直接手动控制（扑杀）个体来响应基于生态的目标阈值来管理这些疫情。然而，对于如何优化此类阈值的实施的定量分析有限。在这里，我们使用多物种建模方法来评估替代 CoTS 管理方案的性能，以改善珊瑚覆盖轨迹。研究的情景在生态阈值目标、阈值敏感性和管理资源水平方面各不相同。我们的方法说明了如何量化资源限制、并发 CoTS 和珊瑚种群动态、目标阈值的严格性以及管理成果的地理规模（地点数量）方面的多维权衡。我们发现 CoTS 目标密度阈值较低（≤0.03 CoTS min ⁻¹）的策略可以充当“努力汇”并限制可以有效控制的站点数量，特别是在 CoTS 群体爆发的情况下。这是因为少数站点需要更长的时间来控制，这意味着其他站点不受控制。更高的密度阈值（例如，0.04–0.08 CoTS min ^-1），根据珊瑚覆盖水平、不同地点之间的资源稀释进行调整，但对资源限制和害虫种群动态更加稳健。我们的研究强调了使用 IPM 框架时的权衡决策，并为在 GBR 上实施基于阈值的策略提供了信息。