North Pacific Star
Veronica Mendivil
Sonja
Quest 2
April 3, 2013
Global Invasive Species
Although this might not seem important to young adults it is a problem in the world that can affect our food habitats and chain of life in the sea.
The invasive species that I’m researching on is the Northern Pacific Star or known as Asterias amurensis. The sea star is native to Russia, China, Japan. North and South Korea. It has taken over most of the coast in Australia and will practically consume about everything, that causes great ecological harm out of it’s natural environment. In Tasmania they were exterminating the sea star and the only way to do that is by cutting it up in pieces but, if the center of the star isn’t cut it can regenerate.
The Asterias amurensis can grow about fifty centimeters in diameter. It has yellow, purple and red pigmentation on the five arms and a small central disk. The undersides of the sea star have little spines that line the groove which the tube feet lie and meets to the mouth.
Although the regular area where sea star’s water temperature would be seven through ten degrees celsius, they have adapted to warmer waters in Australia. It’s capable of controlling many temperatures and wide ranges of salinities. There mostly seen in mud. estuaries, sand or rocky areas in intertidal zones. The maximum depth that the starfish has been found it two hundred-twenty meters.
They are known to have a “bust and boom cycle,” which means they grow rapidly and die largely. The most starfish that they seen within two years were about twelve million. The North Pacific Star will eat almost anything even fish waste. It’s nutrition that it eats a lot would be crab, sea urchins, sea squirts, ascidians, bivalves, gastropod molluscs, worms, barnacles, crustaceans, echinoderms and even other sea stars.
This invasive species is known as a serious and mariculture pest. Oyster production has caused problems to marine farmers. The only times the sea star is useful is when you hunt them let them dry out use them as souvenirs. Other than that their useless.
From all this researching and making my mind fry, this is definitely a huge problem to the marine life but, what can we do to prevent it? Is there another way to prevent this besides hunting them down? What will happen to the other marine animals if we don’t do anything?
My name is Veronica Mendivil thank you for taking your time to read this summary of the Asterias amurensis.
Invasive Species
Work Cited:
"Issg Database: Ecology of." Issg Database: Ecology of. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2013.
<http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?fr=1&si=82>
Donovan, Travis. "9 Invasive Ocean Species (PHOTOS)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 02 Apr. 2010. Web. 15 Feb. 2013.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/02/9-invasive-ocean-species_n_520010.html#s77177&title=Northern_Pacific_Seastar>
Sonja
Quest 2
April 3, 2013
Global Invasive Species
Although this might not seem important to young adults it is a problem in the world that can affect our food habitats and chain of life in the sea.
The invasive species that I’m researching on is the Northern Pacific Star or known as Asterias amurensis. The sea star is native to Russia, China, Japan. North and South Korea. It has taken over most of the coast in Australia and will practically consume about everything, that causes great ecological harm out of it’s natural environment. In Tasmania they were exterminating the sea star and the only way to do that is by cutting it up in pieces but, if the center of the star isn’t cut it can regenerate.
The Asterias amurensis can grow about fifty centimeters in diameter. It has yellow, purple and red pigmentation on the five arms and a small central disk. The undersides of the sea star have little spines that line the groove which the tube feet lie and meets to the mouth.
Although the regular area where sea star’s water temperature would be seven through ten degrees celsius, they have adapted to warmer waters in Australia. It’s capable of controlling many temperatures and wide ranges of salinities. There mostly seen in mud. estuaries, sand or rocky areas in intertidal zones. The maximum depth that the starfish has been found it two hundred-twenty meters.
They are known to have a “bust and boom cycle,” which means they grow rapidly and die largely. The most starfish that they seen within two years were about twelve million. The North Pacific Star will eat almost anything even fish waste. It’s nutrition that it eats a lot would be crab, sea urchins, sea squirts, ascidians, bivalves, gastropod molluscs, worms, barnacles, crustaceans, echinoderms and even other sea stars.
This invasive species is known as a serious and mariculture pest. Oyster production has caused problems to marine farmers. The only times the sea star is useful is when you hunt them let them dry out use them as souvenirs. Other than that their useless.
From all this researching and making my mind fry, this is definitely a huge problem to the marine life but, what can we do to prevent it? Is there another way to prevent this besides hunting them down? What will happen to the other marine animals if we don’t do anything?
My name is Veronica Mendivil thank you for taking your time to read this summary of the Asterias amurensis.
Invasive Species
Work Cited:
"Issg Database: Ecology of." Issg Database: Ecology of. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2013.
<http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?fr=1&si=82>
Donovan, Travis. "9 Invasive Ocean Species (PHOTOS)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 02 Apr. 2010. Web. 15 Feb. 2013.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/02/9-invasive-ocean-species_n_520010.html#s77177&title=Northern_Pacific_Seastar>